Megafaunal data from the 2009 BIOFUN trans-Mediterranean deep-sea cruise

Deep-sea sampling in 2009 onboard the R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa in the three Mediterranean basins. A combination of 2 samplers was used to collect the benthic megafauna: an otter-trawl Maireta system (OTMS) and an Agassiz dredge. The OTMS is a 1-warp benthic otter-trawl designed to work seamlessly on high depth grounds: its stretch mesh size at the cod-end is 40mm, with an outer cover of 12mm, to allow retrieval of small-sized fractions of megafauna. The net total length is 25m, with an horizontal opening of 12.7m and a vertical opening of 1.4m. Trawls were conducted at 2.6 to 2.8 knots. The Agassiz dredge had a 2.5 m horizontal opening and 1.2 m vertical opening, a net mesh size of 12 mm, and was trawled at 2.0 knots.