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30-June-2006 -
The following message has been received from Dr Richard Lampitt
I am now at the PAP site on board Discovery and have to report the
very bad news that all three of the upper ocean moorings have been
destroyed by long line fishing. We have only recovered the lower
portions of the moorings and even down to 2000m we found the
remains of long lines with severe damage to the mooring line still
remaining.
Until three years ago I had never come across a long line on the
moorings and then it was only lightweight equipment and did not
damage the mooring. The material we recovered yesterday was very
much heavier and moorings in future will have to be much more robust
to withstand them.
As a result of this and the liklihood it will happen again I have
decided not to deploy the near surface morings planned for this
cruise. I shall be discussing how they may be strengthened on my
return to Southampton on 9th July and ways in which they may be
deployed this year.
We have all lost from this experience both in terms of science, time
and hardware and I am sorry not to be able to bring you a few items of
optimism. I hope we will recover the deep sediment trap mooring
tomorrow unless of course the fishermen are working as deep as 3000m.
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