During summer 2018, surveys were carried out on board of Daedalus targeting the ROV exploration of North Tyrrhenian seamounts by means of MultiPluto and PlutoPalla. Departing harbour was Olbia (Sardinia). Three seamounts (Baronie, Cialdi, Etruschi) were explored for a total of 12 dives carried out between 207 m and 591 m depth. For each mount ROV explorations aimed at characterizing the communities thriving on the tops.

Oceanographic probes for temperature and salinity were deployed. Six additional dives were carried out on the Ulisse and Janua seamounts in the Ligurian Sea, while two successful dives were made on the Spinola Seamount in the Ligurian Sea at 1870m, representing the deepest dives of the survey. Seven dives were also made in the Bisagno canyon in the Ligurian Sea as well as in the Posada canyon (Tyrrhenian Sea) for sampling. A total of 13 were collected for both taxonomic and genetic analyses carried out by UNIGE and UNIBO.

On-board of Daedalus were present the captain Guido Gay (AzioneMare), Angelo Fraviga (AzioneMare), PI Marzia Bo and post-doc SIR Martina Coppari. Each ROV exploration was preceded by a topographic description by means of Side Scan Sonar in order to localize the hard-bottoms where to direct the ROV surveys accounting for a total of 21 hours of video material.