Not fishin' yet

[shresearchdude]

Left RI Navy Yard this am. On way down south. This leg should cover all the deepwater stations from NY Bight down to Hatteras and back once we get the nets wet.
This new boat is really very impressive. After being on some of the less than impressive Research Vessels in the past it's nice. This boat is the 2nd of 3 "acoustically quiet" boats. And it is quiet compared to the "old" technology.
I was chatting with one of the old timers - back in his first years they would use a mercury thermometer to take water temps, wash his clothes in a bucket, have no access to the outside world...

and no one on this boat writes the regulations either.


http://www.moc.noaa.gov/hb/

somebody should get the old guys on the board "senior" member status

[Kant_Catchem]

I think the memeber status changes as you post more so with time, you will have Senior Member

[Richy B]

SHR Dude,
Always look forward to the info you post, keep up the good work and sharing of info with us. Appreciated from this reader.

[shresearchdude]

out in the world of the Hudson Canyon and still cruisin' at 14knots. My midnight watch should be the first to get the gear in the water.

Gettin' bumpy...forecast still sucks...

[shresearchdude]

what fish are out in 131 fathoms you ask? out by Linderkohl canyon(ish)

spiny dogfish
chain dogfish
4-spot flounder
gulfstream flounder
summer flounder(3)
deep bodied boarfish
longspine snipefish
butterfish
cool deep water crabs(galatheiod)spelling is off-but they still hurt
goosefish
squid-longfin
spotted hake
red hake
silver hake
black bellied rosefish

[Reelron]

What, no pictures?

[shresearchdude]

+ 30 knots for like 8 hrs overnight into today. This boat has anti-roll technology and we're very thankful for that. Stopped work for 4-6hrs since the boat were calibrating/comparing this one to had to stop. I've been on that one in crap weather and this one was tolerable with some stuff not tied down covering some ground and I know that one must have had stuff getting tossed all over the place and some people yakking...
No interest in taking pics today. I'll get some.

[jmurr711]

chain dogfish? don't tell me theres more to ruin my trips besides spiny and smooth oh boy. and i hear those galatheiod crabs are great for tog haha

[shresearchdude]

I left my camera in truck in RI, but have my phone, so no pics until I get back.
Inshore of chesepeake after the 12-20ft swells for day or two - it's quite nice...

[shresearchdude]

chain dogfish- they don't get big
http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/PicturesSummary.cfm?ID=853&what=species

inshore of chesapeake. fish of the day: tonguefish

[shresearchdude]

off the chesapeake, in the channel within sight of land , sunny and low winds for now...
got some stripers, horseshoe crabs, anchovy,herring,tiny spotted hakes, silver hakes, clearnose & winter skates, shame-faced crabs(pretty cool), tiny searobins,fluke, window pane flounder, some other misc crabs.

[shresearchdude]

after a nice sunny day off the Chesapeake with catches dominated with inshore stuff we're running back offshore to do some stations before the wind comes again. At least that way we can come inshore at a later time and escape the 30-40knot winds that are predicted AGAIN. Time to get some sleep...

[MS22]

Sh research, if you don't mind and have the time, could you explain to us the goals of your trip? Are you specifically targeting any species or is this an annual/seasonal trawl survey etc? Any information you could provide would be wonderful(perhaps a link to a website that outlines the goals of your trip if you are short on time). I am sure you have explained this before but I probably missed it. thanks a lot!

[shresearchdude]

A good question since I may not have given enough background at the beginning of the post...

at this link click on bottom trawl survey:

http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/datasets/fisheries/welcome.html#trawl

I forget how to post links properly. Any help out there?


30-40 knots coming sunday night- can't wait...

[shresearchdude]

the saga continues...in a couple hundred feet of water..off NC

dogfish: both spiny(thousands) and smooth(some), fluke, 4 spot flounder, scorpion fish, black bellied redfish, squids, scup(porgie), tiny searobins, conger/american eels, fawn cusk eels, deep bodies boarfish, silver hake, spotted hake, bluefish, black seabass, a shortnosed sturgeon, a small shark like guy(I'll check), a couple of tiny crabs that need to be ID'd back home.

[shresearchdude]

zigzagging from offshore NC to inshore from 80ft to 200+ with huge diversity. I can't even name all the fish since I'm worn out and can't write that much. cool fish of the day: grenadiers, cool shape- silver color and small.

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=8435

[shresearchdude]

still working inshore-offshore. Down by pamlico sound and headed to cape hatteras.
The shift just getting off had a deck full of dogfish on their last set where the contour lines get real tight down here. Wind picking up again? 25Knots now with more to come.
Time to put my happy face on and get to work. Slept like crap and cranky til breakfast break at 7am....

[shresearchdude]

the shift before me filled the net with dogfish(we don't like them either).

We're inshore now and getting mostly small fish: spot, southern kingfish, croaker, banded drum, dogfish(big ones of course) windowpane, weakfish, spotted hake and probably another dozen species that my brain has already forgotten. Got some big shrimp for a change too, but we can't eat them since someone wanted them saved for future ID work.

[shresearchdude]

catch of the day: loggerhead turtles, measured tagged and released, all 3 the size of kiddie pools. Also some sand bar sharks, butterfly sting ray, nurse sharks, smooth dogs apparently like inshore NC while spiny ones do not.

[Andy S]

THOUSANDS of spiny dogfish, any way can rely that to the powers that be who say they are an endangered species ?????????


Thanx for the real time updates.....awesome


Grenadiers are located off of Russia, so says the info page

[shresearchdude]

BUT where are the small dogfish? That's the real issue about why commercial landings of the big fish were limited.
If the big females that commercial guys want are producing pups, but the pup population crashes for some reason, and they keep taking the big fish - where do the little ones come from?

[shresearchdude]

will be working our way back north. made the turn around Cape Lookout area. Catch includes a big eagle ray and roughtail stingrays(small), coronetfish, lizardfish. 1/2 dozen other species.

[MS22]

thanks for the info about the trawl survey! Also not surprised to s THOUSANDS of tiny dogfish show up in nets. They are NOT endangered!

[shresearchdude]

If I put that we got thousands of tiny dogfish it must have been the lack of sleep or being overwhelmed by the number of fish that my shift, (7 scientists) have worked up. There is a lack of info about the tiny/small dogfish because the majority that are collected/caught are all big. This survey is not meant to catch tons of a specific species but a wide variety and many size categories of fish.
Past catches include much more variety, but fewer of each species.
At least 2 kinds of Batfish, frogfish?, coronetfish, some basses that need positive ID's, at least 8? different kinds of searobins, pinfish, pigfish, many crabs that need positive ID's by some "other" experts, spotted hakes(of course), big squid/little squid/medium squid(mucho squid), northern kingfish, southern kingfish, more roughtail stingrays and of course there are probably more species that were worked on that I didn't see...

[shresearchdude]

Its getting bumpy again. I did see that last weeks significant wave height peaked at 26ft. Hope we don't see that again. The big diverse catches from yesterday? were from some inshore gulf stream water that gets tight to NC. Back into the cold water again with less diversity.

[shresearchdude]

Catches are getting far less diverse. Them 2-4" less than 1 year old spotted hake(ling) have been in just about every catch. Interesting...
Catches with nothing "different" and long distances between stations are energy killers.

[Taxman]

Thanks for the updates John

[Montauk Project]

Hi John....Keep the reports coming, they are fascinating to read. This thread has nearly 1000 hits...that is a remarkable number., and it really shows the interest that people have.
Question ??
In one of your posts you mentioned a large Eagle ray.
Was that a spotted ray like the one that jumped out of the water and killed a woman in the Florida Keys last week ?
Just wondering, do you see that type of ray often...how many species of stingray do you see along the eastern seaboard ?
Keep it up, we all look forward to your real time posts. I hope you get to some dry land soon.

Barry

[ALS Mako]

great stuff, i went to school for marine bio, now am in construction, go figure. very interesting stuff. keep up the good work and posts.

[jmurr711]

i love reading these posts its so cool to see all the different species in the atlantic. just curious if theres any theory's on where the spiny pups are ? because i agree we do see tons of the big females but not many pups as opposed to the smooth dogfish where i see tons of pups but not as many big females.

[shresearchdude]

Just eagle ray, bullnose ray, rought tail stingray.

Tonight just skates, dogs, couple o fluke, atlantic herring, blueback herring, alewife, spotted hake, horseshoe crabs, butterfish, some tiny searobins, windowpane, rock crabs.
Down by Delaware bay/cape may. Long steam into nY waters coming...

I bet there's some folks trying to answer small dog questions currently.

The rays are really limited to NC waters for now. We got that stuff down where the gulf stream was tight to the shore.

[shresearchdude]

OMG internet on the boat was down!!! It happens when the boat is headed in certain directions...
Been working off of NJ and now LI shore. Catches heavy with:
Skates: winter skates, little skates, clearnose skates.
Herrring: Blueback, atlantic and alewife.
Hake: many small silver(whiting) more spotted and now some reds.
Flounder: winter, yellowtail, witch, smallmouth, windowpane.
Ocean pout.
Longhorn sculpin.
Small mackeral.
Dogfish kinda' scarce(for now)


Hey Montauk project. Is that the Aldo Nova album cover?

[Reelron]

:) Nice to hear that you are seeing some small Whiting. Hope they get a chance to grow up and multiply.

[Montauk Project]

Hey John...good to see that you are making your way back to your home port.
No cod in your nets off the east end? Sounds like you are working inshore waters ?
While you are off the east end of Long Island, be sure to avoid that huge radar antenna on the southside of Montauk Point.
When you have a minute to spare..Google...Montauk Project...
You will see what I am referring to..

Aldo Nova...that is a classic rock band that I have not heard in a while.
They made some great albums.
My avatar is Pink Floyd's.."Dark side of the moon"

Keep those great species reports commin...

[jmurr711]

just curious what a spotted hake is?

[Life's A Beach]

bet you're missing solid land? you'll rock for days after you get back home. sounds like a great opportunity but I think I'd pass on those 25' seas.



even my 20 year old son knows that's "Floyd"....Aldo Nova; Damn I'm getting old. The MULLET's been IN then OUT then IN and OUT since Aldo Nova. You're gonna make me pull out my David Bowie LPs. Yeah, I still have a turn-table.

[Birds Nest]

Aldo Nova - circa 1981 and a fairly recent photo.

[shresearchdude]

ETA to RI is 7:20am(?) I don't have a clue as to real time. Yesterday at 6am I swore i was eating lunch. Highest peak waves have been 11ft for days. This vessel rides so much better than the one it's replacing. I'm gonna HATE it if I get put on the "other" (1964?)boat next month. No internet, tiny steel showers, mattresses made of some foamy crap encased in some plastic, working out on the deck for 12hr shifts-with swells trying to take the baskets of fish you're trying to work on away from you(in the really bad crap).
I'll be bouncing a lot less on land since this boat is more stable, but yes bouncing for like 12 hours, and I've been sleeping from 2pm-11pm and that's gonna suck getting over...

Back to my "normal" job and not posting at 3am.
I don't know where I came up with Aldo Nova, I prob have the album somewhere, but sleeping on these boats gives you VERY wacky dreams and maybe I can explain it that way?

[shresearchdude]

Spotted hake are more commonly known as ling. There are red hake which are probably called ling also - since they sorta' look the same.

[shresearchdude]

If you noticed a brown govt pickup on the thruway in the left hand lane moving you out of the way it might have been me. I don't know if I should brag... but I made it back from RI in just over 4 hours! I wasn't driving aggressively either... just at mach one...with one stop.

PS my shower was moving last night...might have been an on water memory...

Highlands ST Pats parade at 2pm today. I'm frickin' St Patrick on our float.

Gerry's poll caught up to my most reads record....

[shresearchdude]

I'll have a new camera and won't leave on land-I hope.

April 15-25. Headed north, likely gulf O maine.