If you followed my posts and photos from the 2017 summer hake survey on NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada, you know that I started volunteering as a fisheries biologist last year.

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Groundfish survey vessels F/V Last Straw and F/V Excalibur in Newport, Oregon. May 29, 2018.

This year, I’m going out on the US West Coast Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey!

This is going to be an entirely different experience. Smaller, chartered commercial fishing vessels instead of NOAA ships. Bottom trawling instead of mid-water trawling. And groundfish species are especially interesting from a sustainability perspective, because they’ve recovered from near collapse in 2000 to become a Marine Stewardship Council certified sustainable fishery.

This MSC-produced article about west coast groundfish includes some great pictures of Newport, survey vessel Excalibur, and her owners.

Fun fact: Excalibur was also featured on Deadliest Catch: Dungeon Cove, which was filmed in Newport!

You can probably imagine how excited I am to go back out to sea!

I took a shorter, annual sea safety refresher class this year. (Yes, scientists still look great in immersion suits, just like last year!) Groundfish biologists also get a little extra training in fish identification.

A newly-published version of the laminated guide we used on Shimada last year. Thanks to Dan Kamikawa at NOAA Fisheries!

The survey vessels depart from Brookings, Oregon tomorrow night, and I’ll be on board F/V Last Straw! Stay tuned for updates!