Travels of a Fish Nut

Happy Birthday Jo! It's Jo's birthday (my sister) on sunday and she's going to be 24. Yet again I'm not around and have not got her a present or even a card (I'm a really rubbish sister, sorry). Jo, I hope you have a fantastic birthday. I wish I could be there but I'm sure you're going to have a great time without me.

One of the things I was most worried about when I took the job was not whether I’d be uncontrollably seasick, or whether I’d be able to do the job well, it was whether I’d find enough food to eat on board. As many people asked me what I’d do about the food I thought I’d better tell you. I eat it! The food is fantastic! From what I can gather talking to the other observers the food on the ships is pretty similar and varies only in the skill of the cook rather than the type of food, at least among the Spanish vessels which what I’m on at the moment. There are three meals in the day (unsurprisingly). Breakfast is served around 7.30 am and consists of the most unhealthy food you can imagine: normally biscuits and at the weekends croissants, pain aux chocolate, donuts and these things that look like sausage rolls but are made with sweet flaky pastry and have something akin to nutella inside. On Sundays there are these things that are like thin piped donuts that are very popular. I try and h...

The black-browed albatross is by far the most numerous bird out here at the moment. There are times when there are only a few around but most of the time there are a couple of hundred and there are occasions when the sky seems to be full of them. Most of the time they are really elegant creatures, soaring through the air in complete command of their movements, able to fly mere millimetres from the surface of the ocean even when there is a swell. Because it’s easiest to take photos of them when they are gently soaring through the air it is often easy to forget that they can be quite ungainly at times. When the wind becomes turbulent, which can often happen around the ship, they become almost comical in their attempts to stay aloft. I love watching black-browed albatrosses regardless of what they’re doing, but watching them land can be particularly entertaining. Most of the time they are extremely graceful and land like skilled pilots. But there are times when they are the drunken pilot...

On board a working trawler such as the one I’m on now life is very monotonous. The work is the same every day with no regard for the days of the week. Only two things vary: the catch and the weather. The catch can be good or bad but even that goes in rhythms of good times followed by bad times. The weather is the only unpredictable thing (at least to those of use without access to the weather reports!). There are times when it can be very, very calm. The sea looks like a lake and the boat barely moves. After having got used to the motion of the sea it can be very disconcerting. Most of the time the sea is active without being rough. But there are times when it can get very rough. Strangely this has relatively little to do with the strength of the wind. I’ve known it be Beaufort 8 and terrible and Beaufort 10 and not really that bad. It’s hard to describe what it’s like when the sea is rough but I’ll try. The main motion is from side to side, and this can be up to 25 degrees off the hor...

I’m sorry if I’m seeming a bit repetitive. I’ve shown you more bycatch and now more birds. The thing is that there’s not much else! Still, I think my photos have got better as I’ve learned more about the birds and my camera, and hopefully you’ll think the same too. I’ve got some new birds to show you. This is a cape petrel ( Daption capense ). They seem really small compared to the albatrosses but in fact they have a wingspan of 86cm so are pretty big. They fly in quite large groups and are really cute. They have the most distinctive plumage of any of the birds out here. The second bird isn’t new as such, but the colour is. This is a southern giant petrel ( Macronectes giganteus ) in its white phase. The birds are normally grey or black/brown but go through a phase of being white. I don’t know when or why they do this. If anyone knows I’d love it if you could tell me! This is a grey-headed albatross ( Diomedea chrysostoma ). From a distance they look very like a black-browed albat...

I’ve been on board a few more weeks and as you’d expect, I’ve seen some more interesting (to me, at least!) bycatch. I thought I’d show you some of the more common species I work with as well as some that are rarer and therefore more exciting for me to see. Firstly, I thought I’d better show you Loligo gahi . This is the species that we’re out here to catch and the one I work with most. As you should be able to see they are quite small, with the mantle length generally ranging between 10cm and 20cm, although I’ve had a few that have been over 30cm! The other species I see a lot of is Patagonotothen ramsayi , or rockcod. They are fairly small fish, ranging from about 20 to 30 cm total length (from the tip of the head to the tip of the tail). They are quite maligned by the fishermen as they are the main bycatch species but I really like them. When we have high levels of bycatch it is quite sad to see all these little fish pass by to the discard chute. With their mouths open gasping for ...

I’ve seen the air-sea rescue people in action a couple of times at shows where they give demonstrations of their skills. They’ve always looked impressive, but nothing that amazing. Tonight, however, I got to see them work for real, and I have to say that these people are some of the most incredible I’ve ever seen. One of the men on board had an accident which required proper medical treatment and the decision was made to have him helicoptered to Stanley. The helicopter arrived around 7.30 pm by which time it was already pitch black. The helicopter took quite a while to come in and seemed to take stock of the bow before moving off a bit. Once we’d got on the required heading (you forget when you see the demonstrations that the ship the person is being rescued from is moving) the helicopter came back and started to lower a rope with which to guide the winch. Although this sounds easy it isn’t because not only is the ship moving forward, but its moving up and down and from side to side. S...

We got back to Port Stanley last night around midnight, but it wasn't until this morning that a launch got me and brought me back to FIPASS. I've had a fantastic time over the last couple of weeks, despite going down with the 'flu. I have a load of blog posts to put up but will do that later. It's sunday morning and I just want to find out what's going on in the world but rest assured more photos of birds and fish are coming (I bet you can't wait!).