Captain’s Blog

Steaming South.

Its about 1,300 mile from Timaru to the Northern Ross Sea ice edge, it’ll take us around 6 days to get there if the weather is reasonable. (Unreasonable weather is more than likely).

Information we have indicates the ice is thawing faster this season than it did in 2008 and 2007, however, our records show much less sea ice during 2000 to 2005 than we’ve seen for the last 4 seasons. With global warming the hot topic of the day, we do not see it happening in the Ross Sea in recent years. 

The first job we must do before exiting NZ waters is check the sink rate of our lines to be sure they comply with guidelines set by CCAMLR. These guidelines have proven to be effective in the Ross Sea resulting in a zero seabird by-catch for all vessels involved in the fishery since it began 11 years ago. (Every vessel has at least one international observer aboard, the four NZ vessels carry two observers each, this is to help with the additional research we undertake). The line sink test is carefully monitored by both observers with the results sent to the Ministry of Fisheries (our lines must sink at no less than 0.3m per second) after that we receive a “warrant of fitness” allowing us to proceed to the fishing grounds.

Some of the crew making up fishing gear in the TV lounge. From left: Matthys (The CCAMLR observer lending a hand), Hamish (The Cook), Blain, Patrick, Adam and Sandy.

It’s only 12 more days until the end of August and the close of the South Georgia Toothfish season. All 10 vessels must have their last lines out of the water before midnight on the 31st August. Then its time to start heading home. The first port of call is Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands where we must unload, weigh then reload our entire catch before bringing it home.

This has to be done to satisfy the MSC requirements so our fish can be sold to international markets. It’s an interesting time with all vessels heading for port at the same time and everyone needs to get their catch unloaded and verified by the South Georgia fisheries then reloaded as soon as possible so we can finally be on our way home after 5 months of fishing. Some of our crew will fly home but many of us will stay on and bring the ship home to NZ, that takes about another month!

Masa and Jamie in the hauling room, thinking about that nice warm fire and cold beer at the local Stanley Pub.

Rgds: John B.

When a line is hauled it comes in through the hauling room, around the main hauler, and then pulled to the hook room by the combi hauler. The combi hauler catchers the hooks and hangs them on the magazines as the line is pulled from the hauling room.

If the bottom is rocky, or there are big tangles, the crew can replace up to 1,000 hooks on each line that comes aboard.

Thao working the combi hauler, to his right is the CCTV monitor focused on the main hauler, 20m further forward in the hauling room. Operating the combi is the most stressful job on deck. If it’s not set up properly the combi will simply drop the hooks and miss the magazine guide… then they end up on the deck.You can’t wear gloves while doing this job and the water temp this line has just come from is -1 degree, it can’t get much colder without freezing.

Juliet is hanging new hooks on the repair rail and getting things ready along "Skid Row" as the next line is about to come aboard.

The hook room in top gear with Grant on the combi, Shooter backing up,Aaron (pulling a... I'm a zombie on the combi face), and Shane splicing the 4 strand lead core back bone where a large tangle had been cut out and was still in the hauling room waiting to be un-tangled, de-hooked then re-hung on the magazines for shooting latter that night.

Rgds: John B.