In the field

Today, I am out with some of the staff doing shrimp sampling in the harbor. We monitor the number of white, brown, and pink shrimp in order to manage the species.

This will be my last "official" trip. I've had some good times on this project over the years. Luckily, I can come back to just volunteer when I would like to go back out sampling again.

So here's some of what we do;




The trawl net is put over and wire is let out to set it on the bottom.




Here the winch is bringing the gear back in after a 15 minute tow.



The trawl net is coming up and ready to come on deck.




The contents of the net is placed in a basket. The shrimp and crabs are sorted out, measured, and their reproductive state noted.




Data are recorded on forms and then taken back to be entered electronically for later analysis.




There was a fairly good sample of white shrimp, most of which were females ready to spawn.




The semi-transparent exoskeleton makes it possible to determine how advanced in development the ovaries are.

Data collected today will go into a database from which I compare today's findings with the ten year average. Shrimp numbers are lower than usual due to the winter freeze in January. I'm hoping that the oil floating in huge sausage like mats won't make it along the East coast. It could really destroy the fishery.

But I don't see anything that's amiss today. It's such a beautiful day today. Some light breeze and plenty of sunshine. After I get off this boat I'll get on my own to go out sailing and spend the weekend on her.

Happy Friday to all.