European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

Several ROV dives in 2011 collected imagery date between 80 and 255 meters depth, extending from Monte da Guia to the circalittoral off Criação Velha in Pico Island (Gomes-Pereira et al. 2014). Benthic sessile and mobile megafauna of conspicuous morphotype, or larger than circa 10 cm, as well as all icthyofauna present, was logged on to a database with the customizable video annotation software COVER (Ifremer). The ROV SP ( SeaBotix LBV300S-6 ; IMAR-DOP/UAz), was operated from the R/L Águas Vivas. The ROV was equipped with a colour camera (570 line/02 Lux, 4:3), with four lights installed externally on the four front corners (480 Lumen each) and a scaling two-point laser system (5 cm apart) that was used to estimate sizes. ROV SP was positioned with a Subsea Micron Nav USBL (Ultra Short Baseline) unit fitted onto the vehicle in the responder mode. The navigational data were manually filtered for outliers and smoothed with a moving average, to remove false loops. The moving average allowed adjusting the resulting dive track (Gomes-Pereira and Tempera 2015).