Marine Science around Inaccessible Island
Report and photos from Administrator Sean Burns
I was fortunate to be able to join Rodney Green and his team* on the Fishery RIB Jasus Tristani on 7th January 2019 as they headed over to Inaccessible to carry out some marine science including camera drops and plankton analysis. The weather was excellent and the team were able to deploy cameras at East Point for the first time.
We then carried on and met up with the Geo Searcher that had just arrived from Nightingale. We went aboard to talk to the Captain, crew and fishery observer Warren Glass. The vessel is expected to be there until the weekend before heading back here to pick up passengers for Cape Town. Fishing has gone well with Gough and Nightingale Total Allowable Catch (TAC) all landed and Inaccessible hopefully finished in a few days.
Important work going on and even more importantly, being carried out by local teams. Thanks all for a great day out.
*Cliff Swain, Clifton Repetto, Steve Swain, Adrian Swain and Dean Repetto, also accompanied by young Connor Glass-Green and Kieran Glass.
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| Deploying a plankton tow | Rodney studying samples |
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| MFV Geo Searcher off Inaccessible's south coast with Nightingale Island visible behind, right. | |
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| Observers Rodney, Adrian and Warren aboard MFV Geo Searcher with West Point and Blenden Hall behind. |
Bridge of MFV Geo Searcher |
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| The RIB Jasus Tristani moves off the Geo Searcher with West Point behind left. | |
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Connor takes the helm. |
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| Two Brown Noddies (known by islanders as Wood Pigeons) fly above the sea off Inaccessible Island with Nightingale and its satellite islands of Middle and Stoltenhoff Islands seen merging together on the left. |
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| A camera is dropped in the East Point area for the first time. | |
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| Heading for home: View from the bow of the RIB Jasus Tristani as it heads back towards Tristan da Cunha. |
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| Retrospective view back to Inaccessible Island after a successful marine science expedition. |
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