Toward East Flower Garden Bank

We saw the NR-1 again yesterday for the first time in three days. It surfaced so that two scientists could get off and two more could get on. After three days on the sub, G.P. Schmahl and Dave Robinson have joined us again on the Carolyn Chouest, while Mark Betts and Doug Weaver began their dive. 

Also yesterday, we finished the survey of West Flower Garden Bank and started our transit toward East Flower Garden Bank.

There was a lot of excitement today about the mud volcanoes, which we stopped to investigate near Patch Reef. Mud volcanoes are mounds on the sea floor that bubble with gas and occasionally erupt with plumes of mud that tumble down like an underwater avalanche. We found our first mud volcano last night, and explored another one today. The volcanoes provided some fantastic video for today's live broadcasts and inspired lots of good questions from people watching our video feed.

Tonight we are continuing east, surveying an area of coral reef as we go.