Communicating with a Fishing Vessel

Thursday, July 07, 2011

We still have Force 5/6 conditions with white caps, but the vessel hardly rocks or rolls. We should be finished with the Segment 1 PreLay Grapnel Run later tonight if all goes well. Things are moving along just fine so far on this segment. No high-tension spikes and no debris observed; it is encouraging news for our future plow burial operations.

Towards the end of our line, we communicated with the Fishing Vessel Michelle Ann that was busy laying miles of black cod longline gear in the area. Captain Poggy of the Michelle Ann emailed back to us the location of his gear and we realized that one of his lines lay about 18km ahead of us, right across our route. We were only moving at 1 knot, so there was plenty of time to react. Our Oregon Fishermen's Cable Committee (OFCC) representatives on board, Terry Thompson and Scott McMullen, got on the radio with Captain Poggy. After a short discussion, the Captain agreed to remove his gear. Thanks to the cooperation of Captain Poggy and crew of the F/V Michelle Ann and the contributions of the OFCC, our operations continued!

 

--Cecile Durand, the OOI Regional Scale Nodes Marine Maintenance Manager at the University of Washington, reports from aboard the TE SubCom Dependable.