Life Aboard Ship, Dispatches From South of the "Roaring Forties"
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Tuesday, July 6, 2004
As you recall if you read Bulletin 16, we were due to arrive at Tristan da Cunha shortly. We did arrive, but we have a small problem: we are unable to land or collect the fish we came here to get! Tristan has no protected harbor; the anchorage is offshore of the only town, Edinburgh, and when it is too rough, it's not possible to land. This morning we were advised that the wind (almost 40 kts at the time) made it impossible.
So, we steamed down the west side of the island until we reached Cave Point, behind which there is a wind shadow where we thought we could work. We put over our two inflatables and set fish traps and a long line in shallow water (about 20-30 feet) to try to catch B. diacanthus. We caught a few fish in the traps, but the long line came up with no fish and no bait. Unfortunately, the trapped fish were not what we wanted. We caught a rockfish, the false jacopever (Sebastes capensis) and a Tristan wrasse (Nelabrichthys ornatus) but no nototheniids. That wasn't too surprising, considering that it's a small fish (shorter than 10 inches maximum length) and seems to live in tide pools and just below the tide line in crevices. Where we were able to fish seemed to be boulders and cobbles, probably not the species' preferred environment. We also tried fishing with rod and reel, and that was quite successful for the species that dominates (by weight) the fish fauna of the shelf (near shore) areas in the Tristan group of three islands, the fivefinger (Acantholatris monodactylus). It is also the most commonly used for food and bait. We could hardly get a line to the bottom before hooking one. And, I can assure you that they really do taste good!
 Just one of many five finger, Acantholatris monodactylus, caught off Tristan da Cunha. |
Wednesday, July 7, 2004: This morning the weather is much the same, with the added possibility of an approaching front that seems very likely to make the surf even worse. We steamed up to Edinburgh and could see that the surf was quite spectacular all around the anchorage, where swells coming from the northwest collide directly with the lava cliffs to the north and south of the town. I would guess that some of the white water was reaching between 50 and 100 feet above the sea level. We sacrificed the remaining nototheniids several days ago before the seawater temperature rose to levels that would kill the fish. We need the B. diacanthus badly; for some of our researchers it is one of the primary reasons why they came. We are considering arranging for Tristanians to collect for us (for pay); these fish could probably be transferred by sending in an inflatable one time only. It would be a very wet trip, but we think it can be done. At least in that way we would have the specimens we came to get.
 Anchorstock Point on Tristan. Barely visible on the lower slope are farm buildings, which give scale to the base of the island's volcanic center. |
The wind has dropped this afternoon and we are hoping to be able to get ashore tomorrow. We have been in contact with the Fisheries officer on the island, and he thinks that if nothing changes, we will be able to collect; he has offered to meet us and drive us to the best locations. Stay tuned for the next installment to discover "did they ever get to the island?" and "did they ever get the fish they wanted?"!
