After familiarizing ourselves with and growing confident on our new “floating house”, we were introduced to the work to be done onboard, and actively began our scientific work.

The scientists were divided in two teams. The first one will work from 6:00 to noon and from 18:00 (6 p.m.) to midnight, while the second team covers the remaining shifts.

We steamed down to Nouadibou, Mauritania and by about mid-day we arrived where the previous leg of this survey concluded their work. We immediately started with our first pelagic trawl.

After 30 minutes of trawling, the net was full of jellyfish.

The net was so fully loaded, that the crew had to carefully bring the net onboard avoiding any possible damage that could affect the rest of our voyage. 

Finally, we managed to get our catch on deck and after selecting the fish from the jellies, we carefully sorted the fish by species.

We were fortunate to have also found our target species, which we proceeded to catalogue with  measurements.

Diana, an experienced technician of IMR showed us an easy way to measure fish using a Fishmeter. 

This instrument works with magnets and allows the scientists to measure the total length of a fish simply by touching the end of the tail.

The data is registered and can be retrieved and uploaded on the Nansis survey sheet of the station at the conclusion of the operations.

Using the Fishmeter, scientists can easily measure up to 100 fish with precision in mere minutes, which is not always so easy with traditional methods when you are on a rocking boat that can make accurate measurement slow and challenging.

Part of the team also went through the collection of biological data. This consists of defining the sex, maturity and wellbeing of selected individuals of the target species.

Once a fish is measured and sampled, the bycatch is released and all working areas are cleaned as we wait for the next trawl.  

The second round was a bottom trawl. As illustrated by the acoustic instruments, lots of fish were below us. So when we brought the net onboard, we were not surprised to discover a lot of Saint Peter fishes (Zeus faber) and several Scorphena elongata.

Throughout the afternoon and night watches, we were able to conduct another 4 pelagic trawls, with target species found in all of them.

Not surprisingly, all day long we have been followed by seabirds that patiently waited for the moment in which we release the bycatch into the water. It seems these elegant birds which delighted us with their deep dives into the water to catch the fish, will be our new, inseparable friends throughout the duration of this voyage.

This first day onboard has been challenging. We are now happy, but extremely exhausted, so we will provide you with additional updates tomorrow. Follow us, and ask us any questions you may have in the comment box in each post. We’ll do our best to answer them.