And now... from dry land!

Dear readers, we hope you have enjoyed your summer and we welcome you to this new Platuxa season. We wanted to start posting videos and photos during the summer but personal circumstances prevented us from going ahead with our plan.

However, we are back and we inaugurate the new season with a video taken, edited and supplied by our colleague Bernardo Pérez, from the IEO branch in Santander. The video was composed from footage taken from the main bridge, with is the view that officers and survey leader have, from behind the reel,which is the view for those taking a break from the working deck, and from the side. The video was taken with the time-lapse option, thus its duration is shorter than the actual operation. The background music is "Ashamed", by Deer Tick.

The video starts with a view from the main bridge, and you can see the gear ready to be shot. It looks like a mess, but it is actually very well folded over itself. On deck you can see the black bobbins that roll over the substrate and protect the bottom panel and ground line by lifting the net from the sea bottom, and the yellow and white floats attached to the headline to keep the gear open while fishing. Among the floats you can guess a yellow rectangular shape under the net. It is the carcass holding our gear sensor, which measures the vertical opening of the gear. There are two other sensors in the otter doors (not seen here) to measure the horizontal opening (distance between doors), their angle and bottom temperature. These sensors are of great help to monitor if the gear is working correctly. Large variations in the net opening are a sign for trouble.

You will see the deckhands and the boatswain taking their positions. Three deckhands go to the stern galleries, the boatswain stays by the gear and a fourth sailor handles the crane to shoot the gear. The stern ramp opens, the codend enters the water and the drag pulls the rest of the net. There is a change in the position of the camera and you can see the boatswain walking among the floats, checking that there are no tangles.

Once the net is in the water, the ramp is closed and it is time to secure the wings to the otter doors. Until now the net was secured to the reel on board. You can see this from all three angles. Two of the sailors leave the stern galleries to perform this task on deck. Then the dragging whinches are set into motion from the main bridge and the otter doors are shot as well. In the mean time, the sailors clean the deck of remains from the previous catch.

The video stops here but sailors and boatswain stay on deck besides the whinches until the gear is hauled. Waiting time can be anything between 40 – 90 minutes. Much of this time has been spent in awful cold and deluges, despite of which a very good attitude prevailed...thus we send our best to everybody on board RV Vizconde de Eza, already at sea again to carry out the Porcupine 2014 survey.

No need to say that the Spanish Oceanography Institute continues celebrating its Centenary. All information on past and upcoming events can be found at:

http://centenarioieo.blogspot.com.es/