7 May: Busting the bank (Scotia Arc Expedition 2013)

We have now been trawling at Burdwood Bank for over three days.

This place is neat, just south of the Falkland/Malvinas, very long and relatively shallow (up to ~100m), but never breaking the surface. It houses a very diverse assemblage of animals and we have been enjoying seeing many animals not seen before on this trip.

We did fish at the east end of Burdwood earlier in the trip. But now, at the west side, we are about 165 miles away. This is a big place!

During these days we have carried out nearly 20 trawls. And that included missing half the day yesterday because of heavy weather. The wind and swells rose up, making it difficult and dangerous to remain on deck.

So we called it quits for a while and tried to catch up on processing the samples we have waiting in the cold room. It’s times like these that having a good coffee helps us keep going. Trying to dissect slugs while the ship rolls and bounces around is not so easy.

This morning we completed the very last trawl of the trip. We took a group photo right at the end, so you can judge if we still all look sane or not!

Right after this picture was taken, we started heading for Punta Arenas. It will take a day or two to get there, which gives us some time to pack up the lab, and pack our samples for shipping.

Today we sing out a happy birthday to Jock, and a big hello to lots of friends and family! See you all soon!