Travels of a Fish Nut

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!).

We have had a good couple of weeks and have filled the freezers which means we’ve had to come to land to unload. We’re off again later today (Wednesday) and I’m really looking forward to going out again. It feels very strange to be on land, stable, unmoving, land. Coming in to land was really fun. When we left FIPASS (Falkland Islands Port and Storage Services) initially it was the early hours of the morning and I was asleep. We came in early yesterday morning and came in sight of land just after dawn. The weather was gorgeous although it was very cold. It was very nice to see Stanley, and coming in through The Narrows to see the town appear was really cool. Another ship was unloading so we had to wait in Stanley harbour for a few hours. It was quite annoying being so near to land and yet so far. Even if I had the strength to swim to shore I would’nt have tried it as the water was under 4 degrees C! Luckily I was offered the opportunity to come to shore by launch so I got picked up an...

The boat has its clock set one hour ahead of Falklands time, for reasons that elude me. Apparently it’s so that there’s more daylight when people are working, but seeing as they work when there’s work regardless of the hour and most of the work is done in a windowless factory, I can’t see the point other than to cause confusion for me when arranging to talk to people on the radio! However, it does have some benefits. Namely, I get to see the sunrise as well as the sunset, which is quite unusual for me! Sunrise and sunset, dusk and dawn are - there’s no other word for it - magical. There are birds flying around, silhouettes in the pale light, and the sea and sky seem to go on for ever. Here are a few of my favourite photos I thought I’d share with you.

As I’m sure you can imagine, I get to see quite a few seabirds out here in the South Atlantic. I just wasn’t prepared for how many I’d see. There are THOUSANDS. We’re in the Loligo fishing grounds at the moment and it’s pretty much the height of the season so there are quite a few trawlers around, each with their own contingent of seabirds. That makes for a lot of birds. Now, when I say seabirds I don’t mean scrawny seagulls like you get in Weston! Admittedly, there are a few seagulls, but they are vastly outnumbered by the albatrosses. The majority are black-browed albatrosses ( Diomedea melanophris ): but there also northern and southern giant petrels ( Macronctes halli and M. giganteus ) (I can’t tell the difference yet) and cape petrels ( Daption capense ) in abundance. There are also quite a few royal albatrosses ( Diomedea epomophora ) around which amazing and have, according to my bird book, a larger wingspan than wondering albatrosses. Royal albatrosses are huge birds which...

I should start by saying that there is very little bycatch in the Loligo fishery (which is actually a type of squid in case I haven’t mentioned that already) and most of it is rockcod (Patogonotothen spp.). Due to the fact that I see them all the time, I keep forgetting to take photos of Loligo and rockcod to show you, but I will try and rectify that soon. In the mean time, here are some photos of some of the things that have been caught so far: This is probably the coolest bycatch we’ve had. It’s Moroteuthis ingens , or the greater hooked squid. This one has about a 40 cm long mantle. I didn’t measure the longest tentacles because my 1m long ruler wasn’t long enough! These are the internal organs of the male (first photo) and female (second photo). One of my main jobs is to sex and age squid, though Loligo are much smaller. You should be able to see the difference! This is probably the bycatch I feel sorriest for. It’s an octopus, and I think the species is Benthoctopus eureka . It...