Happy birthday, César!

 

Happy birthday, César! Some godmother you got… I’ll get you a fish, already dried so you don’t have to take it from the fish bowl. 

You may be wondering what time is this to publish the daily entry, on a Saturday. Well, sorry about that, but here all days are the same: work, work, work. We are nearly done with all hauls south of 45ºN. In the last two days we have got 12 hauls, the only issue being that there is hardly any fish. Yesterday we fished between 100 to 700 m, and we got over 2 t of redfish and some American plaice, yellowtail flounder and cod. Oh, yes! And we came across somebody who might be rowing, with an speed of 0.1 knots and a tiny boat, 8 m long and 3 in width. We were close but could not see him. Look at our views:

 

Yesterday. Or was it this morning? Or three days ago... nevermind...

 

Sometimes it clears but the fog comes back shortly… or maybe we are chasing it? By the way, now that fog came up, parents need worry not! We are in very good hands. Ships got radars and icebergs are easily detected and told apart from ships because they got no name labels -among other things. Besides, when there are icebergs we get notifications via the GMDSS, electronic devices that my uncle Antonio probably would like a lot. These substitute the telegraphists of yesteryear. So maybe my uncle Antonio will not like them at all. I’ll show you a picture tomorrow.

A little break from the fog

The redfish kept people very busy. In case you didn’t know, the deckhands also help in the working deck when needed.

Adriana, Alberto (definitely Alberto), Javier from La Guardia and David

Today we have beaten our Greenland halibut catch per day record for at least 3 years: 73 kg. Don’t laugh because it is very good considering how rare they are becoming. Besides, we got a large length range. Although even those looking big are actually juvenlies. They are highly migratory and like cold water. They can reach lengths above 100 cm and adults love eating capelin (Lear 1970, hand-typed MSc thesis!… Scary thought!).

Tiny Greenland halibut

Not so grown up Greenland halibut

The fishing today was conducted between 300 – 1200 m and we have seen quite a lot. Crustaceans, among them the Pasiphaea tarda that black dogfish finds so tasty. But nature is wise and did not give dogfish hands with which tear P. tarda heads to suck on them, because they contain parasites quiet often, like these two below. 

P. tarda  and guests. See the white in their heads? It is a worm...

 

This is Rai’s idea, not mine. Be thankful I am not writing everything he told me. Aparently you can pull the parasite (an annelid), which comes out like living thread. Actually I have delayed the blog on purpose to make sure no body woudl be eating their tapas while reading this, you might have ordered some grilled shrimp….Invertebrate taxonomist are not very fuzzy as you can see.

Since we have started with invertebrates I’ll show you something you may not know unless you watch lots of documentaries. The animal below is a pycnogonid or sea spider. I have looked it up in the internet and it is mentioned in another blog called the 27 best deep water species. See? No nasty adjectives attached. We get them in, well, deep water hauls. I think it is unbelievable they reach our hands in such a good state considering they have been in the trawl with hundreds of kilos of fish, then have been on deck, down to the working deck and the conveyor belt...

Colossendeidae

 

We have also caught this individual of the genera  Caulophryne, similar as you can see to my good friend Luci (lucifer) from the other day. These reach the size of a football ball, so this individual is rather small. Males are also parasites to the female. The antennae are used to detect prey. 

Caulophryne spp

And there is yet another interesting sighting: the guys from the engine room. They came up to fix something on deck and with the sun and the upcoming haul they could not resist a little pause to watch.

 

Three of the five engine room team.

In any case, there has been much more work than leisure, so much that people are seen in a blur.

Rai moving fast, Adriana, Nair and Marta in the background.

As a farewell, here is a photo of Earth from space, or if you prefer it, the view from the lab when the ship rolls.