Somebody told me...

We get lots of good wishes for the survey and I hope the blog will fulfill your expectations, specially knowing that our families are so much looking forward to hearing the latest news. But besides telling you about life on board, this blog aims to awake your interest in our work and specially in marine fauna. Not that marine flora is not interesting or important, far from that, but there are no macroalgae in the grounds we fish and microalgae are out of our scope. But these microalgae we do not see and that make up the phytoplankton keep alive most marine fauna, directly in the case of the smallest herbivores and indirectly in the case of most of the remaining species. If you are interested on microalgae I strongly recommend http://www.fitopasion.com/, a very good blog by our colleague Francisco Rodriguez. So please ask anything crossing your minds (to Fran or to us, depending on the question!). You can use the comments in the blog, or e-mail, if you have a friend or relative on board.

I was asked the other day why do we fish this particular depth range (50-1500m) and not other. It is a very good question and an example of those details we do not get into because from our position we do not think it may arise questions.

Our faithful followers know we fish between that depth range, and that there is a reason for it. The main goal of our survey is to obtain data on several fish species with commercial interest. Except for redfish, which is pelagic, all these species have in common being demersal. This means that they depend on the seabottom, for refuge, feeding, or both. Besides, different species have preferences for different temperature and depth ranges. So to fish them we have to follow them where they are.

I was also asked if the Grand Bank got deeper than 1500m, and the answer is yes. The Grand Bank is the top of a very large and flat-topped submerged mountain, with a very steep slope, as you can see in the picture. The seabottom around the Grand Bank is deeper than 5000m, same as the area where we are now. That seabottom is oceanic crust, much thinner than the continental crust. The Grand Bank is part of the continental crust and the Canadian platform, but this has not always been like that. Ironically enough, the Grand Bank used to be next to the Iberian Peninsula. But the continental drift took it slowly to the Canadian coast, and now, about 200 million years later, it is too late for complaints.

The Canadian platform and the Grand Banks. Our sampling area circled in yellow. Map by Michael Lee, taken from www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

So as you can see, even though 1500 m depth is a lot, we are just scratching the top layer of the mountain where the Grand Banks are.

Regarding our day, the adjustment period is over and we have started to work. We have all the weights installed, the material distributed, knives sharpened and the coffee maker steaming. Now there is time to prepare sample labels and also trying the new intercom headphones, really handy for this kind of work because you get rid of the noise and can focus on the numbers your colleague dictates. I would have liked to get them years ago, but you cannot always get what you want. Hopefully they will work well and we can add them to our inventory very soon.