Happy weekend

We are already in the last hours of the weekend, which is being productive in the sense that we continue working without incidents and according to plan, because with regard to fish there are not big changes. Except when it comes to redfish, which is on the rise compared to last year, and Greenland halibut which seems to be a bit more abundant. 

No, it is not the same photo of the other day. It's the engine room guys working on Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon we went in less than an hour from calm seas, 3-4 knots of wind and thick fog to 30 knots winds that shredded the fog and made the sea look like it was about to boil. It was the tail of a storm that passed through to the south of our location, it came and went very fast, shook us a little and that was it. We did not have to stop working and finished the day with seven hauls, one of them with the dubious title of being the poorest in the history of this survey. We also finished two strata. Tomorrow we will check our catches again, because today we have completed a further six strata, making a total of 25. Of the remaining 16 we have got some hauls in 5 of them, so we are doing well but without much room for delays. We have sampled already most of the largest strata, so except for halibut, which is usually mainly fished in the northernmost part of our study area, tomorrow we will have an idea of ​​how this survey will end. 

Jose Luis' team sorting a redfish haul. Antonio, Vanessa, Lucía, Jorge, Cristina and Jose Luis

Extracting cod otoliths

This weekend, redfish and cod have been responsable for keeping everybody very busy. Redfish because it dominated catches, cod because of the large amount of otoliths that had to be extracted. Redfish - like cod - are fished on several fishing grounds in the North Atlantic. The Irminger Sea redfish is caught with pelagic rigging (which does not touch the bottom). That used to be an important fishery. Not like Newfoundland cod, far from it, but it concentrated an international fleet of tens and tens of factory trawlers. With time it was observed that the distribution of the fishery changed, not only geographically but also in depth. The redfish populations in the Irminger Sea were investigated and it was concluded that the management model had to be changed and instead of treating all the redfish as a single resource it was necessary to investigate and manage them as two resources (or management units), a shallow one found at a máximum depth of 500 m, and a deep unit found at greater depths. It was also concluded that the shallow unit was in rather poor condition, and it was advisable to stop fishing it. The deep water unit also presented a worrying prospect, and it was decided to establish a quota that would diminish over the years,to see if the situation improved. However, not all countries accepted these measures. There is an international survey that takes place biennially and every year the results suggest that ​​Irminger Sea redfish are increasingly scarce, so I am glad to see redfish in this other region of the North Atlantic. 

Apetizers on board

Look at these beauties

The heroes: Héctor, Santomé, Suso and Manuel

Speaking of redfish, which are delicious, I have no choice but stop at the kitchen. Today is Sunday and on Sundays the Vizconde’s kitchen goes beyond the beyonds. I am truly sorry for the rest of Humanity that is not on board, but I must show some food photos. On the tables we also had octopus Galician style, cheese and sausages, and as main dish a delicious rice with meat and seafood. For dinner we had swordfish with potatoes, salad, pasta with ham, roast chicken and something else I cannot remember... It's a conflict having to choose among all this. And then we have our waiter Manuel encouraging us in case someone is thinking of resisting "Come on, guys, eat a little more! Enough food left!" Mothers, do not worry about us. Gyms, make room for us. A lot of it.

Redfish management is a puzzle.