Fishing in Antarctica

Over the past few days, I've had the unique opportunity to participate in a fishing cruise aboard the Lawrence M. Gould. With sore muscles and a lightness of heart, I can look back at this moment of my Antarctic experience as one of those great times in my life. Granted, fishing on the Gould was hard work, but it was also very satisfying. Not only did I get to help support science, I also got to work with some amazing people, see some beautiful scenery and say "Hello" to a penguin who decided to swim with us for a bit. I worked the night shift mostly, helping bring in trawls by working the deck winch, sorting through the bounty for fish, and shoveling the rest of the sea creatures back into the murky depths. We also set out pots deep in the water, connected to each other and to the buoys with a miles worth of rope that we later had to painstakingly separate and coil. On our last day out, we drove two zodiacs out into beautiful Paradise Harbor for a very cold fishing experience with rods and reels. Ice Fish (fish that have no red blood cells making their blood white) were our main quarry, and each boat was successful in catching some.

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