We departed for Jacksonville, FL on the 2nd of May for a 10 day
trip performing ROV surveys of the deep reef Marine Protected Areas (MPA's) off
the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. This is new territory
for the Mighty Vessel Spree, and we had no idea what to expect.
We arrived in Jacksonville on the morning of the 4th ready to fuel and board
passengers. We put on lots of fuel, and the ROV pilot and scientists showed up
about 1 in the afternoon. After spending the afternoon and evening setting up
the ROV, we departed for the deep MPA off of the Jacksonville coast at about
midnight. We spent most of the day surveying, and found that there are, indeed,
fish in the MPA. I pulled a weather forecast which would prove to limit our time
in Florida, so we didn't get the opportunity to survey outside the MPA for
comparison.
We scooted (as fast as a big, fat boat scoots) to a spot 40 miles south of Cape
Fear, NC. We found plenty of lionfish, but also lots of Hogfish (enough for 2
sandwiches each), Gag grouper, and tilefish. we surveyed in depth from 250-550
feet deep. On the third survey day we were further south in North Carolina.
Day 4 found us in South Carolina. The wind started to blow up in the morning,
but we still had 3 successful dives both inside and outside the MPA. Seas were
too big in the afternoon to survey, so we started south to Florida. After
slamming into 5-6 footers most of the night, the wind finally shifted and we had
following seas for the rest of the trip back. When we got to Florida, however,
and turned around to look at those big seas, we found that we definitely didn't
want to stay out and try to work in that. We headed back to the dock, and
unloaded by 3 PM.
The trip back to Key West was 6-10's on the head for all but the last 6 hours.
Pretty miserable.
We learned some new things. MPA's seem to work, fishermen seem to poach in them,
and the wind blows in Florida in the Spring. All in all we had 15 sites we
needed to hit, 25 we would have liked to hit, and hit 17 of them. Not too bad
for the time we had to work in.
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