They are back...

This is what cod in the Grand Bank will probably say when we get there in a few days. We left Vigo this morning, as planned, in our Vizconde de Eza, 16 year old and looking as good as new.

As it is usual in departure day there are hardly any people around except at lunch and dinner time. I haven’t actually seen yet a few crew members, I hope no one is missing and I hope there are no more people than expected. The veterans are taking it easy in preparation for the weeks (or months) ahead, the newcomers are getting used to life in continuous movement. At the time of writing we are already 90 nm from the coast.

This year the Vizconde crew are Miguel, Isidro and Jose María in the bridge, Héctor, Jesús, Santomé and Manuel in the kitchen, on deck we will have David, Marín, Juan, Javier de La Guardia, Alberto,  Rubén, Luis y Luis de Marín; in the engine room will be Ramón, Jesús, Jose Juan, Juan y Román. The biologists are Jose Luis, Marta, Jose and Jose Luis V from IEO; Antonio, Lucía, Vanessa S, Cristina, Nair, Teo and Vanessa C will join us for the duration of the three NAFO surveys, and the students Jorge from the University of Alicante and Fergus from the University College of Cork. And me, of course, also from IEO.

Ready for departure

Our usual followers will have already spotted a few new names, but do not worry: except for the students, everybody has been in several surveys before and this is going to work out very well. My only worry is that we are starting earlier than usual and in our work area it can make a difference.

There are some news in the survey, as the iSEAS project prototype. We will tell you more about this project soon. For the time being I’ll tell you that the prototype is a camera installed above one of the conveyor belts in the working deck. The camera includes software to recognise several fish species. The camera has been tested before but it is the first time that it will be used in Platuxa. Marta is in charge of the camera.

We have also planned some microbiological sampling. Fergus will take samples from some of the deepwater fish. Very, very interesting stuff. There are more news but I’ll keep them for later. Now we can only hope we will find more fish than last year, when we fished so little. You can find the 2016 report in the IEO e-repository: http://www.repositorio.ieo.es/e-ieo/handle/10508/10789

But for starters I was more than happy to see that the Vizconde de Eza  was moored very close to the Santa Isabel, a veteran Portuguese trawler, and twin of the Santa Cristina, which we saw last year in the Grand Bank. What a beautiful and elegant ship, Román and me agreed last evening.  If you happen to be in Vigo take a look if you drive Beiramar Ave. – beware of the traffic, though! The Santa Isabel is unmissable: simply the most beautiful ship in the harbour.  

The Santa Isabel last evening in Vigo

Casting off. From left to right, on deck: Juan, Rubén, David and Javier