<blockquote>“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean”.

<strong>Arthur C. Clarke</strong></blockquote>
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In this second phase of the project, once again thanks to Sierpe tour operator "Don Jorge.” We came across several families of humpback whales or jubartas, this time both from afar. One whale jumped and launched its entire body out of the water and another decided to go under our boat. When this happened we stopped with the engine idling as the best practices of whale watching. Some small spotted dolphins also livened up our arrival to the island.

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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Dive #3—The anchor</strong></span>

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On this dive we put our underwater mapping system to the test for the first time! Called “Sub-mapper”, this system consists of a <strong>pycom</strong> plate that records the coordinates that we travel on our dive, in this way follows our route from the surface. Here we have images that are much more accurate that a manual mapping system.
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<td style="width: 50%;"><img class="size-medium wp-image-65893 aligncenter" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GPS-mapper-El-Ancla-28092018-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><img class="wp-image-65895 aligncenter" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GPS-mapper-sub-28092018-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="174" height="232" /></td>
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<td style="width: 50%;"><img class="size-medium wp-image-65903 aligncenter" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WhatsApp-Image-2018-09-30-at-23.02.18-5-300x169.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="169" /></td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><img class="size-medium wp-image-65901 aligncenter" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WhatsApp-Image-2018-09-30-at-23.02.18-4-300x169.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="169" /></td>
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** The shown maps are in the process of being post-processed and will be completely ready and published at the end of November.

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While we "mapped" the area we came back to find white tip sharks, moray eels and a beautiful sea star (Pentaceraster cumingi) commonly called a cushion star.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-65891 size-large" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Estrella-de-Mar-El-Ancla-20092018-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="840" height="630" /><img class="alignnone wp-image-65899 size-large" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Tiburon-Punta-Blanca-El-Ancla-28092018-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="840" height="630" />

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<strong>Technical data of the dive:</strong>

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Main activity      Mapping the rocks of El Ancla

Maximum Depth       15 meters

Water temperature     28 degrees Celsius

Invasive species?     Not registered

Sightings      Whitetip shark, moray eels, star cushion

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<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Dive #4—The Boat</strong></span>

We made this immersion for the first time so it was more of an initial exploration, the main conclusions are an immersion where sandy bottoms full of garden eels predominate. As for reefs, there are <strong>salteadas de poca potencia</strong> and corals, the state of the corals is not optimal and we found a Crown of Thorns Sea Star and indications of corals possibly killed by this potentially invasive species.

<img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-65889" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CoT-comiendo-coral-El-Barco-28092018-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /> <img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-65887" src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Coral-comido-por-CoT-El-Barco-28092018-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />

<img class="alignnone wp-image-65885 " src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Anguilas-Jardineras-El-Ancla-28092018-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="605" height="453" />

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<strong>Technical data of the dive</strong>

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Main activity    Exploration of the dive "El Barco"

Maximum Depth     18.2 meters

Water temperature     28 degrees Celsius

Invasive species?    CoT or Crown of Thorns Sighting

Sightings

Visibility at 5 meters horizontally using the Secchi Disk: 15 meters.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-65897 " src="http://innoceana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Secchi-Disk-El-Barco-28092018-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="698" height="524" />