Polarstern / CAML expedition: 5 tons of antarctic cod and a few whales
Big fish catch
© G. Chapelle / IPF / Alfred Wegener Institute
Only two days after fish stocks monitoring operations began near Elephant Island, we've already had a day to go down in the record books. Our first record was in term of whales: 13 whales were observed today, belonging to 3 different species. In detail, there were two Humpback Whales, famous for their huge "arms" and their spectacular leaps, as well as eight Fin Whales and three Sei Whales. Although less well-known, these last two are the two biggest species after their cousin the Blue Whale, each having a length of more than 20 m. The observations also neatly confirmed the expected richness of marine life near the edge of the continental shelf, where the sea bottom contours bring about an upwelling of nutrient-laden waters, necessary for strong plankton growth.
But the real highlight of the day came for the fish crew. The bottom trawl poured on the deck the biggest fish catch ever made during the 24 years of Polarstern's operation in Antarctica: more than 5 tons of Marbled Notothenia (also known as the Antarctic Cod)! This catch represents a goldmine of information for the ichthyologists. For example, the catch confirms the tendency of this species to form massive schools. Russian trawlers exploited this trait in the early eighties, when the fish population was decimated within a few years.
It remains difficult to estimate current levels of these now protected fish stocks since, beside this catch, most of the other hauls did not yield more than a few hundred kilos. The scientists were happy with the record catch, but so was everyone else: after the chef's intervention, a "subsample" was also selected for the kitchen (delicious!), and when the fish were cleaned and gutted, the "fiesta" then began for the Cape Petrels, the Black-browed Albatrosses and the Giant Petrels!
