6-March The Castle & Antarctic Toothfish

6-March The Castle & Antarctic Toothfish

Saw a beautifully crafted iceberg today – it was too small to be given an official name so I named it the Castle, I think this one has got to be my favorite so far on the voyage. This one would actually be classed as a ‘Drydock’ type, as there was a empty section I the center with walls around it.

The crew caught another Antarctic toothfish today, 1.3m long weighing 34 kg, this was transported whole to the freezer space to join the giant squid caught the other day, both destined for Te Papa. This is a close relative to the patagonian toothfish, and normally caught around the edges of the Antarctic shelf and in the Ross Sea.

To taste - It’s is a very oily fish and comes under various names Mero mad Chilean sea bass, merluza negra and mero. Large adults occasionally exceeding 200 kilograms and thought to live up to fifty years and can reach a length up to 2.3 metres.

Another interesting fish that the ‘midwater’ trawls are bring up are the ‘Crocodile Ice Fish’. Interesting fish with gaping pointy mouths surrounded by transparent skin.

There was excitement when I found SQ whilst cleaning up in the workshop this afternoon. He had been hiding under the workbench. It turns out he must have fallen out of my pocket when in the workshop and did not drown after all. So looks like the ‘SQ sails home’ story shall continue.