25th July 2009

It can be pretty boring at sea, especially during a 3 month voyage. But South Georgia is different in so many ways. Whales, Seals, Penguins, Orca sea birds and Icebergs are all common in these parts. The Icebergs do come and go depending on the southern ocean currents and weather patterns. We don’t see as many this season, but last season, there were hundreds scattered about the fishing grounds. We never seem to get tired of photo opportunities with an Iceberg in the background. This is a rare shot, not only because of the technicolor Jade-Berg in the background, but look who is leading the paparazzi..

Its Mr P (oops) Francois him self..

These Bergs are fascinating, and usually, if we see one in the distance, we will ease over and take a closer look. (Please don’t tell the boss, he thinks we never stop working J) The few we have seen before were totally green.. or Jade, but this one was regular on one side and Jade on the other.
When you get close, these Bergs appear more like glass, you can see right into them.

We don’t worry about the big Bergs, they are easy to see and track on the radar. It’s the growlers and Bergy bits we have to watch for. As the Icebergs drift onto warmer water they break up and become real dangers to navigation like the one in photo #2, if we ran into this at night we would certainly do some damage to the hull or worse.

For safety at night when growlers are about we use huge stadium lights to help spot them when we’re steaming between fishing lines.

Rgds: John B.

23rd July 2009

Research fishing, the collection of biological data and the tag and release of Toothfish and Skates are just some of the many responsibilities we must undertake so this fishery continues to be properly managed and compliant with (MSC) the Marine Stewardship Certification authority.

Sam is our official observer for this trip. He is appointed by a British “Marine Research Advisory Group” (MRAG) to help us comply with all the relevant fishing regulations, collect important biological data, record species by-catch, details of tag release and recaptured fish. Every week Sam sends his report to the South Georgia Fisheries base, at King Edward Point where his records are compared with our daily reports for accuracy.

Adam (on the left) is assisting Sam by writing down the details of a small recaptured Toothfish as Sam calls them out (weight, length, sex, gonad state, general condition and tag numbers). You can just see the little yellow tag behind the fishes dorsal fin.

Each time a Toothfish is recaptured the crew get $10US. Sam will hand out the cash to the crew that spot the fish when we get back to Port Stanley. This is a good incentive for the crew and helps create some interest in the tag and release program. After all…it is their wages that gets put back in the water in the first place.

Rgds: John B.

20th July 2009

Adam (aka Sharp shooter) in the hauling room with an XXXL Patagonian Toothfish, (Dissostichus eleginoides if you happen to speak Latin).

Some of these fish grow to 150kg and bigger, this 85kg Toothfish was caught in 1,800m deep water where most of the big fish live.

In shallower water, between 800 and 1,000m, the average size fish is 7 to 9kg. We are not permitted to set lines or catch fish in water shallower than 500m within the South Georgia, South Sandwich fisheries management zone.

The main Toothfish spawning grounds are to the North West of South Georgia, around the shag rocks area between 200 and 400m.

Once Shooter has cut its throat, the fish is placed on a conveyor to the bleeding tank. From there it will be moved into the factory for processing, then weighed, labeled, packaged and into the blast freezers, usually within 2 hours of being caught.

The water temp ranges between -0.8 and +0.8 for most of the winter season so our product quality is as good as it gets.

Adam says Hi to his family back in NZ.. He’s a hard worker and always ready with his camera when something interesting is going down. (Unless he’s right in the middle of the action that is).

Rgds: John B.

PS: I did have a nice (proper photo) of Francois, but it seems to have gone missing from the photo files. Something fishy happening here.

7th July 2009

The photo shows Jacob and Adam working on the line deck. This area, at the stern of the ship, is where the down lines, grapnels and floats are stowed. Here they are hauling down line with about 1,500m to go.

Each of the blue drums holds 500m of 16mm rope. Usually each line will have 1,700m between the floats and the grapnels (anchors that hold the line on the sea floor). Each long line has two ends. On an average day we haul and set 3 lines.

Every day around 25,000m of rope, or 50 of those blue drums, is hauled and set from the line deck.

Setting the lines over the stern is a skilled job that must be done properly. Floats, rope, grapnels and chains must be connected in the right way at the right time. If its not, we can lose many hours hauling lines back aboard to start the set again.

Rgds: John B.

1st July 2009

South Georgia is notorious for its bad weather, particularly in winter. We have been fishing along the North and South West coasts of the island for the last 7 days and still haven’t laid eyes on its rugged mountain rangers. We can see the island on radar just 25nm to the north but fog, sleet and low cloud have kept it hidden from view. During the last 4 days have we have had classic bad weather conditions with 60kt SW storms bringing with it huge seas freezing and conditions about the ship. But life is relatively comfortable aboard with the hatchers well dodged down in these severe conditions. Only occasionally will the crew have to venture out on deck to bring fishing gear back aft to the shelter deck for setting.

Mat on deck taking floats back to the shelter deck ready for setting lines.

A few days before we arrived at the fishing grounds one of the other long liners, ( also licensed to fish in South Georgia waters ), accidentally caught fire. Eventually the fire was brought under control by the crew but too much damage had been done for them to make repairs or continue fishing. A large Korean trawler was diverted to tow the damaged vessel to Montevideo, while doing this they were caught in that same storm we were in a few days ago. By all accounts, the tow line broke, the fire took hold again, and the vessel eventually sank around 200nm North of South Georgia. We believe there was no loss of life, all crew are safe and well.

2nd Mate Shane on the left with the Chief Engineer Greg, checking BA gear and fire fighting equipment.

This was just another reminder to us that accidents do happen and the need for us to be self sufficient and deal with our own problems is vital, it is no use waiting for help to arrive out here.

Rgds: John B.

30th January 2009

Yesterday we set 3 lines on an isolated hill that we haven’t fished before. The first line is up and the results look encouraging. It’s good to be away from that sea ice and in open clear water for a change. Hopefully we can keep fishing for another 2 or 3 weeks before this area is also closed, then we can head for home.

Mike, the cook, reports the ships stores are holding up well. We have a reasonable stock of apples and oranges that still taste good but the remaining fruit is well past its best.

We finished the fresh vegetables about 2 weeks ago so its all frozen veg from here on. No problem though, it is good quality Talley’s frozen products and plenty of it. We are keeping an eye on the long life milk supply, we ma run low there (heaps of coffee though) and we’re almost out of cheese otherwise we’re in good shape in the stores department and meal time is, by far, the highlight of our day.

The evenings are starting to dim now with the sun dipping below the southern horizon. In another week we’ll need the light on over the chart table at midnight to see properly. From then on conditions will get colder and darker at night very quickly.  

Every ship has a mascot, we have 2. Monkey and Mr Gudni Olifsson. Both are better looking than most of my crew I reckon.

Rgds: John B.

27th January 2009

Now that the Ross Sea fishing grounds are closed its time to head for the next fishing spot. We have decided to go north-east to an area called the Amundsen Ridges. Last season the fishing was good in that area and on one line several fish came up in tatters when they had been attacked by colossal squids. Maybe we’ll catch another one this season. If so, we intend spending more time with the camera getting as many good live images as we can before letting it go.

In the meantime, our crew finally get a chance to sleep in or just chill out for a day or so before we get there. We have already been steaming for two days; if the grounds we’re heading for are ice-free we should be fishing again tomorrow.

This morning we had 56 icebergs on the 12nm range of our radar, so there is plenty to look at on the way.

Steve the factory manager on watch

Steaming past another iceberg

Karl making the coffee

Rgds: John B.

24th January 2009

We are now hauling our last lines from the Ross Sea grounds then this area will be closed at midnight on the 25th Jan until next season. Even at this stage of the season we still have scattered floes of ice work in.

Grover is driving while Tangi gives some advice as we ease past a large slab of ice that has drifted up from the south during the last 24 hours.

Chevy and Noel hauling and pushing ice away from the line as it comes aboard. This photo was taken just before midnight last night with the sun still well above the horizon. That water is now -1.5 degrees C and it doesn’t take very long to freeze the fish once they are processed and put in the blast freezers.

Rgds: John B.

22nd January 2009

The heart of any longliner is in the hook room. Antarctic Chieftain has 45,000 hooks stowed on 40 magazines. The hooks hang on the mags and the lead-impregnated backbone (the lead helps the line sink faster) is connected to the snooded hooks every 1.4m.

When the line is hauled it comes aboard through the hauling room at the front of the ship and is then pulled all the way to the hook room in the stern by the Combi hauler where the bent hooks are reshaped and the lost ones replaced. The line is then stowed and made ready for setting again. This area of the ship is a hive of activity 24hrs a day, seven days a week, with either hauling or setting the lines. The baiting machine is located on the port side of the hook room and the Combi hauler is on the starboard side.

The Combi is a cunning machine that pulls the main line, with hooks still attached, from the hauling room to the hook room and automatically stows the hooks on the magazines.  On a perfect day all runs well, but down here, with the conditions we work – deep water, foul ground and sea ice – it can take up to six crew on the Combi rail to keep up with the hooks coming aboard. On a bad line with lots of tangles the crew could replace 1000 hooks on an eight-hour shift as well as splicing, stowing and stacking the lines.

The Combi operator controls the machine and untangles the snoods that bind tight on the main line and the Combi doesn’t pick up. He can also see the crew in the hauling room on the closed circuit TV at the other end of the ship. Lots of coordination and skill is required for this job and everyone is required to do it.

Frodo on the Combi with the closed circuit TV showing hauling room on the bulkhead in front.

Shand, Aaron, Nole and Ren in the hook room. Shand is working the combi and watching the screen, see the hooks behind him.

Nole, Aaron and Shand working the hooks.

Rgds. John B

18th January 2009

More colossal encounters. This time we have found a squid beak inside one of the toothfish. We think the beak must have been inside the fish for some time as there was no sign of a struggle with tentacle marks on any of the fish we’ve caught in this area and there was no squid, other than our bait, in any of the stomachs the observers had sampled for the last few days.

We wonder how long it would take for a toothfish to digest a beak like that… probably some time we imagine.

Check out the kina with attitude: they are not toothpicks, it was walking about on those stalks when I took its photo. We think the other beast is a copepod of some kind. We’ll take it home for proper identification by people who know more about these fellers than we do.

Rgds: John B.