Fishing vessel to antarctica

Povl Abrahamsen (Physical Oceanographer, British Antarctic Survey, OCEAN ICE project)

Approaching the South Sandwich Islands on fishing vessel FV Argos Georgia

“Usually I study the ocean from large ice-strengthened research vessels. However, these ships are in high demand, and sometimes plans change at short notice. This year, as part of OCEAN:ICE, we wanted to deploy instruments to monitor the deep waters modified near Antarctica as they flow into the South Atlantic Ocean through South Sandwich Trench. This is a remote area, rarely visited by ships. We made contact with the operators of a fishing vessel that was performing research and commercial fishing only a few hours from our study site, and managed to deploy two oceanographic moorings between fishing operations, to collect data over the next year.”

Povl Abrahamsen (Physical Oceanographer, British Antarctic Survey, OCEAN ICE project)

Deploying an oceanographic mooring from a longline fishing vessel in South Sandwich Trench

“While longline fishing vessels are set up to efficiently deploy long ropes with thousands of baited hooks and recover the lines with any fish that have taken the bait, deploying a mooring with scientific instruments down to nearly 6000 m depth took a bit more planning. The main mooring line was flaked into large plastic buckets usually used for bait. These were set up in front of a hatch in the stern usually used for deploying marker buoys at the ends of the longlines, and the instruments were clamped on at different depths. After the buoys at the top of the mooring were lowered into the water, the line then streamed out from the buckets, with the instruments thrown over the side at the appropriate time. It worked surprisingly smoothly.”