Last September 27th, NUTME could finally hold its first face-to-face meeting. The activity took place in the Coastal Marine Research Station (ECIM), Las Cruces. The different teams of researchers presented their findings and coordinated the next research activities.

The scientific divers showed the locations that can be called mesophotic reefs. These points have been explored using BRUVS, in some cases by direct diving. Some water samples have been taken for eDNA and drifting kelp has been recorded in those locations.

Other aspects presented during the meeting were related to the description of the structure of the fish and benthic community in depth gradients from 10 to 90 m. Drift Cam videos were used to assess the richness and abundance of fish, and the dominant sessile fauna between different locations along the coast. These registers will provide a first approximation to the description of benthic communities of mesophotic reefs.

Regarding this, the collaboration of taxonomy specialists will be essential.

One of the presentations was dedicated to present different models of thermal variation to understand thermal anomalies at different depth ranges (shallow - 20 – 50 - 100 m). This will provide information about environmental variability at different depths and latitudes, as well as annual variations.

Another very interesting topic was also the analysis of related fauna of the main demersal fisheries that extract resources between 90 and 600 m depth, operating between Caldera and Concepción. The data was collected by scientific observers under the IFOP Program between 2014 to 2019. More details will be soon available in a report.

An undergraduate student of the PUC will join NUTME to collaborate in understanding the different attributes of the species and their versatility: trophic group, maximum size, trophic level, and range of depth to determine if some species approach mesophotic and / or shallow reefs and which are captured by trawl fisheries.

The day ended with high doses of motivation and a dinner that took place at the Hotel Las Cruces.