Birds, seals and dolphins

The crew who spent January on the Nansen were correct about us doing an extra trawl yesterday so we did six instead of the planned five. After washing up though a few of us retreated to the entertainment room and watched a DVD before heading to bed. The entertainment room has A LOT of DVDs so there is always something to watch and apparently they get six new ones every month. I feel rather spoilt on this ship - I don't have to cook any food, I don't have to wash dishes and even though I make my bed every morning, it gets remade after breakfast!

Today was our first day of seven trawls and it will carry on like this (weather permitting) until the end of the cruise. I'm getting some hands on experience using the ship's data software program that I did a course on last year. This does mean that between trawls I am calculating total catches and capturing the data onto the database. I'm very sure that this experience with the program will stand me in good stead at some point in the future. I also find it interesting that this component of the work has, for the most part, been undertaken by the cruise leader and not just any person capable of sitting in front of a computer.


This photo shows the trawl net being pulled onto the deck. If you look carefully you can see the birds and a seal. The yellow buoys are attached to the trawl net.

Our trawls are harassed constantly by birds and seals and today we caught a seal. Not a happy moment for anyone. It is rather strange to catch them but one of the ropes came off the net and it took a while for the net to be hooked with something else and pulled in. It was probably at this point that the seal got stuck in the net because while the net was floating behind the ship, it was closed thus trapping the seal inside. The rest of the days work went without any other mishaps but the afternoon ones had very large catches of lots of small fish which all have to be sorted and weighed.


The Norwegian crew getting the net on deck.
The net being opened to let the catch out onto the deck.

Our last trawl was pulled up just before sunset and we had the pleasure of watching dolphins swimming alongside the ship while we waited for the net to be pulled in. Fortunately the last catch was not that big and it was amazing how quickly everything got done.

I am now finished and am heading straight to bed! Take care everyone.

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