Microwaves me insane

Today I must start thanking our readers for following us, specially those who admire how hard and well we work here. We have also been asked for pictures of black dogfish and my friend blue antimora, but they have to wait until tomorrow because we have spend the whole day splashing in shallow water. Non-stop splashing, nevertheless!

You cannot imagine how cold it was this morning on the deck. It was also very foggy. My first thought in the morning when I get the cold air from the door that opens to the stern is for the deckhands, because they have to wait on deck all the time while we shoot and haul the gear, a minute per each 100 m of cable. Do the math for deep water hauls that need 2800 m of cable. If it is cold in the bridge it is way worse on deck. But they do not complain and they are never grumpy.



Shooting the gear for the first haul today



Hauling in

First sample today

In the working deck, which is also very cold, there has been no time to loose either. It has been an special day. The first haul brought very nice cod, the second, American plaice, redfish in the third and fourth. Redfish also dominated the fifth haul by a wide margin, but there were many other species: a bit of cod, some skate, American plaice and witch flounder. American plaice and yellowtail flounder in the sixth haul. The seventh came in as I started to write and it is still being sampled. What surprised us the most is that we caught 160 kg of witch flounder. Considering that we got over a tonn of redfish you may think this is a rather lousy surprise, but the thing is that last year the most abundant catch (and per stratum) of this flatfish species was 128 kg, and two years ago, 24 kg. For further comparisons check annex IV of the survey reports.



Lots going on. From left to right Javier, Venicio, Alba, Yolanda, Roi, Andrés, Edu

Wow, I just had to sprint to the working deck, just realised after all this rambling that I haven’t got a single pic of witch flounders, managed to get the last one before it went under the knife.

Right, the witch picture refuses to upload.

We have also got 144 kg of sea cucumbers, which is a high figure for a single day in this survey. Sea cucumbers, apart from a fairly boring lifestile (from my point of view), just rolling about on the sea bottom, food coming in one end and exiting the other, have got some colourful names in Spanish that do not quite translate to English, but if any of you is curious I’ll be happy to oblige.

And it is about time to think of the birders out there, quiet as a mouse. They have probably lost faith on me. By the way, no news from the person who ringed the swallow despite the fact that I have answered all the mails I have got from the Spanish Ornitological Society.

We saw the first great shearwaters the day we were at Flemish Cap. Most of the birds following us are great shearwaters, and in between there are a few fulmars (those I know). Friday and Saturday we saw also two gannets. Somebody asked me to record the birds, but I cannot really fit anything else in my schedule, and who in their right minds would anyway trust my bird data? Luckily, Iñaki is a better birder than I am, and he can also take decent bird pictures. My contribution to the bird chapter are a great shearwater pic and the corresponding audio, since we cannot upload videos.

See you tomorrow at 6 a.m.!

Great shearwater. Photo: Iñaki Franco

Fulmar. Photo: Iñaki Franco



Gannets. Photo: Iñaki Franco

... and sounds from the Grand Bank!