Expedition SO251-2/ EAGER took place between the 17th of October and the 2nd of November, 2016 in the Nankai Trough / Kumano Basi area off Japan.Besides piston corer and heat flow probe, ROV PHOCA which had to "jump in" due to logistic problems regarding ROV KIEL 6000 , was one of the main tools to fulfill the tasks of this cruise.
The main task of the ROV was the localisation and recovery of long term observatories which had been deployed 4 years ago during expedition SO222. Two so-called Mebo Plugs and two temperature loggers (see images below) were recovered without any further technical support. For the recovery of a so-called Smart Plug und a Mebo Cor, a ship wire fitted with a recovery hook was needed. Pulling with the ship's winch, both observatories were lifted on board.
In total, 7 dives in water depths of approximately 2000 m were accomplished with a bottom time of approx. 35 hours and a total dive timem of approx. 54 hours.
Images (unless otherwise noted): ROV-Team GEOMAR; for enquiries regarding the use of image material please turn to Pressestelle GEOMAR oder Dr. Friedrich Abegg.
