21. June

Todays Highlights

Date:21 June 2004
Author:  Anne Stene, Aalesund University College, and Eilif Gaard, Faroese Fisheries Laboratory

We are now at our last station in the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone and will continue our voyage southwards. We are located close to the Sub-polar front and will move into warmer water indicated by yellow and red colour on the satellite image provided by colleagues at the DOP, University of the Azores. Our position is lat: 52o38.120` N long: 30o29.848`W.

At this station we caught a large number of juvenile squid Gonatus sp. Ørnulf Opdahl, the artist onboard, has already painted these and other beautiful animals.  He tells us that he has painted a total of 107 water colour paintings so far on this trip. He seems to find a lot of inspiration.

Today a summary of the fish species sampled thus far was presented. We quickly accumulated new species at early stations and added one or two species at each subsequent station (se table). We expect to add more to the list as we now move into warmer and different watermasses.

Images from the UVP (Underwater Video Profiler) reveal mostly small plankton organisms and marine snow (aggregates of organic particles) as it profiles the water column. Today, however, a beautiful jellyfish, Atolla, was observed, drifting along at a depth of 950 meter. 

Jellyfish image from UVP

Cumulative number of fish species by stations

Weather Conditions

Today the sea has been calm, the sky has been blue, the temperature has been 12 o C, and we just had a dream of a sunset.

Tomorrows expected highlights

The second lander (upward looking echo sounder) will be deployed during the night. Everybody is excited about the expected change in watermasses and species composition as we move further south.