With ten canyons to port

Luckily Marta phoned home and came to the bridge to tell me that her mother loves this blog and reads it every day, and my friend Álex (the one who disseminates the Antarctic virus) and Silvia have also left their comments, because I was wondering if the three hours of sleep I gave up last night to write, translate and select and edit pictures had been worth it. And I also got a volunteer to come to London to see the James Caird. Not bad at all!

The icing of the cake did not come out yesterday as expected (or rather wished) after all. Cursed CTD making trouble again. Sometimes I’d like to throw it overboard but without the cable. After two trials at midnight and 1 in the morning (only time possible) we had to get moving without the data. We have been using today another data logger but it is not being by any means a smooth ride.

But the fishing goes very well and we got onboard a couple of hours ago the sixth and last haul of the day. We started with two hauls at 1200 m and we took the last at 120 m, so we have seen nearly everything. Actually early this morning we couldn’t see much further than our noses, it was so foggy, but while I photographed the chimeras it opened completely. It has been heavily clouded and very dark all day though, the sun only came out in the evening. But the sea was calm and we could work very well. Very well meaning that we have reached our goals, because the deckhands have endured hours of bitter cold and some heavy rain that has also fallen on Eva while taking one of the CTD profiles. In this area (3N) we also count with the fantastic seabottom cartography elaborated within the international project NEREIDA, leaded by Spain and in which both IEO and the Spanish Directorate of Fisheries took part. 

A detail of the seabottom map, with some of the canyons we have to avoid. See two hauls (green dots) shown and Vizconde de Eza (white icon top left)

Greenland halibut catch today was the largest of the survey. Not large by any standards, because it was a mere 120 kg in three hauls, but compared to former days it was very good.

I have also spent some time searching for fun facts about chimeras, cartilaginous fish (as sharks and rays) that live close to the sea bottom at great depths, unforgettable with their weird look. The generic name of chimeras comes from the sailors of yesteryear: a chimera is a hybrid of goat, lion and something else from Greek mythology, what makes me think if those sailors had ever seen a goat (or a lion for that matter). What it is clear is that they did not look at them fondly. It seems the reputation of chimeras has not got any better with time even though they pose no threat for mankind (actually it is the other way around). Among the first ten results I got in internet there were these headings: “10 horrible sea creatures” and “terrific alien fish with wings and glowing eyes”. I nearly run away. But it is not so bad. Problem is, there is hardly any light down there and they need very large eyes, that unfortunately look rather peculiar in day light. However, it seems the writer missed the fact that the first spine of their dorsal fin is a bit poisonous, otherwise he would have surely thrown at them yet another nasty adjective. 

The chimera Harriotta raleighana

I do not think it s ugly... bizarre, definitely, but not ugly.

Big fish eats small fish. Could not resist...

We have also seen grenadiers, that give me a fair number of headaches throughout the year. Some people mix them up but paying a bit of attention there is no room for mistakes: the roughhead grenadier has a pointy snout, bigger eyes in relation to head size, larger scales and way rougher, more obvious and very rough to the touch. The roundnose grenadier has a, well, round snout, smaller eyes, smaller scales and while I would not say it is smooth, it is more like touching fine sandpaper.

Roughhead grenadier

Roundnose grenadier

So suddenly it was lunch time and I can only say that I am truly sorry for the 7.4 billion people that are not onboard the Vizconde. Apart from what you see there was a wonderful fish paella and cheese with quince. I don’t know how they managed to make all these tapas for 35 people. Before I go to bed I am going to search for house-elves in the kitchen.

Tapas

More tapas



One dessert



 

The rest of the day has gone into three shallow water hauls at 500, 300 and 100 m depth in which redfish was the dominant species, except for the last haul, which brought mostly American plaice (it was hiding here). We also got two large Atlantic halibuts in the fifth haul, but less than half the one we caught yesterday.

I had to spend hours in front of the computer, thus had less time to run about taking pictures, but tomorrow there will be something a bit different. It’s a deal!