The Quest begins

Mark O'Shea = :octopus:
Steve O'Shea = :meso:

(Steve Irwin = :bonk: )

I shall make the proper sacrifices to my various dark and watery gods. You shall be protected.

:notworth: :cthulhu: :arrow: :oshea: :boat: :sun:
 
Well, we got the puppy wet. The objective was to just have fun, and to take a few people out to whom we are indebted (as in Discovery folk).

So, here are a couple of pics of the boat and crew:

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No ring nets over the side (yet) - this all happens this week (so stay tuned for live squid pics, and a little more about what we're doing).

The boat (Stabi-craft HT659) handled like a dream!

A wonderful day was had by all.

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Who says science is hard work :?: :shock:

BTW the pic of "sunny" Auckland looks like nice weather compared to when we were up there! AND we have glorious blue sky, sun and about 50 sailboats out in the Otago harbour today!

Cheers

J
 
Quality!! Glad to hear it Steve!!!

Good to see the photo's of Auckland since I had family living there for about 20 years but have emigrated to Taz now, will get there one day.....
 
After another stressful day in the lives of K & O we returned triumphant. We're figuring out how best to (and how not to) deploy the gear, and will make a few modifications to both net, deployment and retrieval equipment and techniques.

But we did catch squid, albeit a small Sepioteuthis australis, ~ 40 days old, with eggs probably deposited to some kelp somewhere June/July. The little guy was damaged when we retrieved the net and didn't make it. ... but there are squid out there, and that's the important thing.

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.... and the squid.

You can see it isn't well; normally they'd be swimming quite happily at the surface of the jar (even a jar of this size).

We'd gone out to trial the gear/techniques, and to determine whether there were any squid about. Of 8 plankton tows we did, the first 5 were of 30 mins duration (too long, but it allows us to sample a lot of ocean with minimal effort (hauling/deploying gear)). Once we'd determined that there were squid about (5th haul) we shortened the trawl duration to 15 mins (to retrieve better-condition larvae). Sadly we didn't catch any more, but we'll be out again soon, this time working twilight hours ....

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Well, just got another wee doco out of the way (this one for German TV). They'd come to NZ to film the fixing/preservation of a giant squid (that is en route to a German museum in Jan 2004).

We took them out for a jaunt in the boat yester - a rather long day (returning in pitch black, choppy seas at 1.30am, on the smell of an oily rag); we'd gone ~ 50 miles offshore to track those elusive larval squid down - but as is always the way, the little guys avoided us, yet again.

Connie is the producer, Volker another ceph fanatic, and Hans the cameraman. They've had a very productive/rewarding time here in NZ, and got some sensational footage (dolphins always oblige, as do gannets and albatross, and of course some truly sensational weather). Everyone, come to NZ - tiz a lovely place to study (even if the squid are few and far between).

The first 3 pics are of the crew, separately, collectively, and a group shot later in the avo (with the bright sun behind them - hence obscuring almost all facial details).

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... and here are a few more:
The boat (side on), and 2 pics of Cape Colville (Coromandel Peninsula, outer Hauraki Gulf, Auckland).

I love my boat! The whole time I was out there I was thinking of all that work to do in the office (not!).... and, of course, everyone on TONMO. Have been couped up for what feels like an eternity attending to paperwork.

Now I've got to get back to a solid week's paperwork.

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lotus101 said:
New Zealand is UNBELIEVABLE! You guys are so lucky! I hope that you are successful in finding your squid!

You haven't seen the BEST part yet!!!!! Once I've submitted the ol' thesis I'll need to get out with the camera down here in the south. We have some interesting stuff y'know primeval forest (where they filmed Amun Hen, Orthanc etc etc for LOTR), fiords, glaciers and all that kinda stuff!

And there're cephs down here too :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Sorry folks but there is immense rivalry (all in good fun!) between the North Island and the Mainland!

cheers

J
 

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