IMIS

Sampling gear used for the collection or rhodophytes is not clarified in the respective paper by Lemoine (1915). A thorough examination of the different types of sampling gear used in the 16 stations, where calcareous algae were sampled from, suggests that they were collected using dredges (e.g. D1: dredge with rectangular opening of 27 x 117 cm; D2: dredge with triangular opening of 45 x 45cm; and hand-dredge of 18 x 14 cm) and also possibly trawls (e.g. Y200: young-fish trawl, 200 cm in diameter at opening and/or Monaco trawl, 56 x 170 cm at opening). In the introductory paper by Schmidt (1912) it is mentioned in page 12 that “When at anchor the motorboat of the “Thor” was often used for fishing in shallow water, for example, with the same dredges as used from the ship and with small hand-dredges intended for the collection of marine algae” supporting that the hand-dredges were also used in certain cases. However, given that different types of sampling gear were deployed in all stations, it is quite probable that samples were mostly collected on an opportunistic basis with complementary sampling methods.