Italian Sampling Continues-Unique Animal in Italian Waters!

Wednesday July 14th

Monday July 12th we woke up early and left the anchorage in Capraia Island. We arrived at Ischia island at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 14th. In those 48 hours we collected 6 samples. Two samples were collected in the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea, two samples were collected over a seamount in the Tyrrhenian Sea and two other samples were collected at a long term research station in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was a pretty intense 48 hours of sampling.

I have been on Sorcerer II since 2003 and I have seen a lot of things at sea, whales breaching, sharks swimming around, dolphins, flying rays, I even saw a shark eating a dead whale near Nantucket (nobody believes me, but I swear it happened!), but what we saw the other day 30 miles offshore wins the prize for the strangest thing I have ever seen at sea! John spotted something in the water so we changed course to see what it was!

As we passed this giant dead animal, there were two things it could be, a cow or a pig! People disagreed so that night we decided to just call it a cow-pig. As pictures were downloaded of the famous cow-pig we all took a look at the tail and feet, we all agree now it is a big bloated pig, but feel free to let us know your thoughts! Either way it was strange to see this so far from land!