An extremely old Farrea nr occa erecta sponge found ~2,660 meters deep at McCall Seamount. This species has two types of morphologies – a bushy type and a stalked type (shown here). A fairly large number of dead colonies of this sponge were observed during the dive – this was the only live sponge of this type encountered. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2015 Hohonu Moana. Download larger version (jpg, 1.0 MB).
Leg 3: Dive 4: McCall Seamount
Video highlights on McCall Seamount, which was the first dive this cruise in the group of topographic features referred to as the Geologist Seamounts. The dive surveyed the crest of a sharp ridge that extended north of the seamount at a depth of 2,700 meters. Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2015 Hohonu Moana. Download (mp4, 74.0 MB)
Dive 04 was conducted today on McCall Seamount and was the first dive this cruise in the group of topographic features referred to as the Geologist Seamounts. The dive surveyed the crest of a sharp ridge that extended north of the seamount at a depth of 2,700 meters. The ridge crest was covered with loose talus and was almost completely barren of animals, which was unexpected. This type of substrate continued throughout the dive, except for a couple of small ledges consisting primarily of pillow lavas.
