International Day of the Oceans

Today you will have your blog ration but Jose Maria, the other Vizconde Mate is certainly not to be  thanked for it. When I ask him for help, he chuckles and goes away. At most I can squeeze a title, but today I did not like his idea and his input was 0.

It has been the International Day of the Oceans and we have celebrated it in the right place and in depth, spending almost all day in waters deeper than 1000 m. It is HORRIBLY cold, with a chill factor of -5ºC and 20 kt NE winds. We have recently brought on board the last haul of the day and I honestly cannot explain how the deckhands feel like laughing - or talking to me. Despite the intense cold we have these days there are still some mad / brave / immune to the cold people that go out to the deck without a hat or a scarf. But then Isidro goes out for his smoke in a polo shirt and e-Teo in a t-shirt and shorts !!!! These guys are not ok. The fishing park has also had its fair share of cold. Neither the kitchen or the engine room have been cold but they have enjoyed like the rest of us the Vizconde’s rolling. She rolls like there is no tomorrow, this trawler. Manuel does not lay the water glasses on the table until we are about to sit down, after the mess last year, when almost all the glasses stock for June broke in a single roll. It is difficult to stand, it is difficult to move around the boat, it is difficult to be seated because you go from one side to another of the table with your chair, and you need a hand to grab the desk and another to hold things. As you can imagine we did not get bored at all. The university students who are sitting their exams these days have also plenty to do. Let's hope we can all celebrate on Sunday.

Javier got wet

And again, but this time with Juan

Rubén, David, Juan and Javier braving the elements

About to finish

In addition to all these weather issues the currents in this area are very strong. Last night we proceeded north, but not too far from where we were, we are about 45ºN, and it's amazing. We have taken several CTD  casts with the line in a diagonal because of the drag. Yesterday the data logger did not come even close to the bottom even though the line shot was several hundred meters longer than our depth at that location.

But let's go to the fishing park. The first haul was good in terms of catch, diversity and sheer amount of juvenile fish: cod, redfish, Greenland halibut, American plaice…. you name it. It was a lot of work. Jose Luis’ team has also found this black dogfish female (Centroscyllium fabricii) with several pups. Most sharks are ovoviviparous, meaning that eggs hatch within the female's oviduct, so that the offspring are born alive and fully developed. After this haul we moved to deeper strata and we have got several good hauls, although not as spectacular as yesterday, when we got over 200 kg of halibut in a single haul.

Female black dogfish with pups

This will be it for the time being, these days are not being easy and we need to rest. We are working according to plan but we are not getting a free ride.