DOI: 10.17882/96976
title: Marine exploration dataset of the 2015 RAMOGE Exploration: description of observations made during Remotely Operated Vehicle Dives in the RAMOGE agreement area

description: This dataset provides information on the first expedition conducted by the RAMOGE agreement in 2015. Established in 1976, the RAMOGE Agreement enables the 3 member countries (France, Italy and the Principality of Monaco) to implement joint and coordinated actions to limit marine pollution and preserve the coastline and marine environment between Marseille (France) and La Spezia (Italy), fully including the Southern region (France) and Ligurian regions (Italy), as well as the Principality of Monaco. This Agreement is part of the Barcelona Convention. With over forty years of existence, it is a symbol of sub-regional cooperation and solidarity for the preservation of the Mediterranean.
This exploration was organized using Italy’s maritime resources in 2015, with R/V ASTREA and ROV Polluce III. Fifteen dives were conducted to explore Arma di Taggia and Bordighera canyons in Italy, Dramont canyon and the Nioulargues shoal in France and several deep rock formations in Monaco. All these explorations covered approximately 21 km , recorded 22 h 24 min of video and documented 1791 events at depths ranging from 49 m to 462 m.
Metadatas :
 - Events : ID unique of the observations
 - Dive name : name of the dive. Composed by sites, names of ROV, dive number of the mission and the date
 - Area explored name : toponymy of area
 - Exploration vehicle name : name of the vehicle used to conduct the exploration
 - Exploration vehicle type : type of vehicle used to conduct the exploration
 - Exploration vehicle owner : owner of the vehicle used to conduct the exploration
 - Date : date of the observation (mm/dd/yyyy)
 - Time : time of the observation (hh :mm :ss)
 - Latitude : latitude in degrees (WGS84)
 - Longitude : longitude in degrees (WGS84)
 - Depth : depth of the observation
 - Data source : nature of equipment served to describe the observation (video or picture)
 - Landscape : qualitative description of the landscape complexity
 - Slope : qualitative description of the slope
 - Substratum : qualitative description of the substratum
 - Typology of habitats : typology of habitats described in the context of the Barcelona Convention (Montefalcone et al., 2022). The description of habitat is defined at level 3 or 4.
 - Facies : typology of habitats described in the context of the Barcelona Convention (Montefalcone et al., 2022). The description of facies is defined at level 5 of the typology when it’s possible.
 - Waste : qualitative description of the waste when a waste is observed
 - Specific action : description of action realized with the vehicle (i.e. start of exploration, sampling)
 - Other description : other description about landscape, non taxa observation
 - Taxa : identification of the observation to the most accurate taxa
 - Clear determination : Right if identification is sure ; False if identification is uncertained
 - Abundance : number of individuals or wastes observed
Equipment :
 - R/V ASTREA
 - ROV Polluce III (Video FullHD)
 - HD video camera Sony
 - Photo camera Canon EOS 550
 - Sonar EM 2040 Kongsberg
Video derushing carried out by : Fourt M.