So for this post I have decided to change up my writing style. Since I really enjoy photography I figured it might be best to provide photos in order to give you an idea of what I get to see everyday versus writing a wall of text.
Overall my duty as a marine technician has remained the same for the current NOAA fisheries cruise I am deployed on. The main differences between this cruise and the previous cruises is that I get to run the pot hauler to retrieve the fish traps that we set at each station. Anyways…
As a marine technician you need to be prepared for a variety of weather conditions. For the most part our cruise has been uneventful (with the exception of the first 3 days) and we’ve been able to enjoy the 1-2 ft sea state and the beautiful sunsets that come after an 80-degree day on deck.
However some days we have to suffer through pouring rain, thunderstorms, and high seas. Yet even those days (where you are spending most of the time hoping you don’t vomit up your lunch while helping out the scientists) you can find those beautiful moments that make all the suffering worth it.
For this particular cruise we spent the majority of our time off of the shelf of Georgia and near Daytona Beach, Florida. The objective of this cruise was to collect data using fishery-independent sampling techniques, specifically by using chevron fish traps and underwater high-definition video. The main fish that we were aiming to catch was the Northern Red Snapper, which is a prized food fish, caught commercially, as well as recreationally. Red Snapper is the most commonly caught snapper in the continental USA making up almost 50% of total catch. Overall we sampled a total of 142 stations with traps and underwater video (112 random, 11 opportunistic, and 19 recon) in Georgia and Florida over 10 days at-sea. The weather was a little bumpy to begin our cruise, forcing us to forgo some sampling on the second day. Highlights of the cruise were 172 red snapper trapped, including a bunch of small red snapper around 200-300 mm total length. A couple of videos likely had 30-40 red snapper visible. We also caught a small (3-kg) goliath grouper off Daytona Beach. Catches of other species were light to moderate. Video quality was very good, and the MARMAP group was able to record 80-90 GoPro Hero 3+ calibration videos for a hopeful switch to GoPro cameras next year. I believe we will be donating around 300 lbs of fillets to the Salvation Army in Savannah.
For the most part I spent the cruise running the pot hauler to retrieve the traps, as well as standing watch, and working on instrument malfunctions. Retrieving the traps was a three-step process. First you had to grapple for the buoy lines. Once you pulled the buoys in and created enough slack you could attach the line to the pot hauler. Lastly you had to pull the trap on board and dump the contents into a bucket.
Step 1: Grapple buoy line
Step 2: Reel up trap using pot hauler (and make bets on trap contents)
Step 3a: Stop the pot hauler with enough rope to allow scientists to pull trap onto deck. Avoid reeling in too much or else you will screw up the block.
Step 3a: Stop the pot hauler with enough rope to allow scientists to pull trap onto deck. Avoid reeling in too much or else you will screw up the block.
Once all of the traps are collected the science party will begin processing their catch. Overall there were pretty much three different species that were consistently caught: Red snapper, Black sea bass, and Tomtate.
Since this cruise was focusing on red snapper all the specimens caught were processed. The scientists took weight and length measurements, as well as otolithes (fish ear bones), DNA samples, Reproductive Organs, and Stomach content of the red snapper. The other trapped fish were measure for weight and length, however depending on the species (I don’t remember the exact list) they may have gotten worked up more.
Beginning the data collection process
Fish are sorted by species
Bucket full of Vermillion Snapper
Once all species are sorted the scientists take a species bucket and dump it into the laundry bucket to determine total mass
After being weighed the fish is measured. The species shown here is a Red Snapper.
Depending on the species the fish may or may not get an extended work up. In this picture the otolith (fish ear bone) is being removed.
Usually the catches were generally similar (assuming there was actually something in the trap) however the best part of the cruise was when we found an unexpected species in our traps.
Remora aka Shark Sucker. This species is generally found attached to sharks, turtles, large fish, or even the hulls of ships.
Short Bigeye- Generally not found in trap due to their habit of feeding at night and hiding during the day.
Reticulate Moray
Red Octopus
Salps- A planktonic tunicate that was wraped up in our trap
Unknown (to me) Eel
Golith Grouper
Since this was a fisheries cruise one could probably assuming that most of the science party members like to fish….that was garanteed this trip. Every chance they got, either while steaming towards the next trap site or while anchored during the night, they would put their lines out. I’m not going to lie….it was sort of contagious. I’ve never been fishing before this cruise but with enough prodding I finally decided to cast out a line…and was instantly catching fish left and right. It was awesome. What made it even better (in my mind since I don’t eat seafood) was the fact anything we caught was being added to our dataset. Overall we caught a lot of different fish. While trawling we caught Dolphins, Barricuda, Little Tunny, a sailfish, and some sharks. Bottom fishing had its own unique catches, mostly Snapper, Squirrelfish, Tomtate, Black Sea Bass, Sharks, and a Sea Robin. Below are some of the pictures of everyone enjoying their free time fishing.
One of the scientists hooking a barracuda
Close up of barracuda
First fish I every caught – Snapper
Second catch – Snubnose shark
Squirrelfish
Red Snapper caught by one of the science party
Lizardfish caught by one of the science party
Tom Tate
Dolphin
Sea Robin
