I am working closely with a group at the ALCES lab at AUT run by Dr Kathrin Bolstad who also study cephalopods (squid and octopus) around NZ. As a result, I have recently been on a trawl survey with NIWA on their research vessel, the Tangaroa. I spent three and a half weeks living aboard the Tangaroa on the Chatham Rise in August 2015 and my job was to identify and collect cephalopods.
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| The RV Tangaroa docked in Lyttleton, Christchurch (Photo: Nathania Brooke) |
Being aboard the Tangaroa was an amazing experience, I met lots of really easy going people and we were fed very well! We were targeting mid-trophic level organisms which means we wanted to catch the things that big fish eat, although we did get a few big fish! We measured and weighed all of the fish we caught and took stomach and tissue samples from a sub-sample of them to be analysed at NIWA.
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| Tyler with a 18kg Ling caught and sampled on the Chatham Rise |
We also caught a lot of cool squid including my study animal!
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| A mature warty squid (Onykia ingens) hauled up from the depths |
If you have any questions you can email me at: tyler.northern@otago.ac.nz
It is a very proud thing to be able to catch such a large squid. But it will take quite a while to eat the squid.
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Debbie Evans