The show must go on

Sampling is finished for the day and the overall results are good. Everybody has worked hard. Our experienced colleagues have combined very well sampling and training of the students, who have worked enthusiastically. We have taken five hauls and five hydrographic profiles with the CTD, at depths ranging from 70 to 220 m. The coordinates for hauls 3, 4 and 5 are:

43º29.07 – 051º25.67

43º24.55 – 051º30.90

43º23.20 – 051º38.46

We have caught at total of 4300 kg of fish, of which 3600 were capelin. Far below were American plaice (189 kg), redfish (152 kg) and thorny skate (100 kg). Except for the last haul, which consisted mostly of redfish, the others were rather different from what we usually see, with so much capelin and little of other species, although some of them were represented by large individuals, as it was the case for haddock. We have also seen herring, witch flounder, small Greenland halibut and a further 13 species.

The CTD sampling was also sucessful, and Jose, our IT man has taken good care of all our electronic devices... it would have been a perfect day if the warp hadn't snapped at the end of the fifth haul. Luckily the officers have recovered the gear, the catch, the doors and the cable. Fixing the cable is a time-consuming task and hard work on top of it. Actually, the crew has been working at it for over four hours now. They are doing a great job outside their working hours and in boring conditions, because it is cold outside and for a while it rained too. So this blog is dedicated to them today, and here is to you, Eladio, David, Juan, Javier, Seixo, Luis, Paco and Luis.