enlarge image The F/V Endurance crew -Captain Armando Estudante, Paulo Nano, Aires Oliveira and Philipe Andre (Joe Silva not pictured) - gather for a photo after recovering the NOAA shrimp trawl and related gear, about $40,000 worth of equipment, during Leg 2. Chief Scientist was Sean Lucey of NEFSC. (Credit: Northeast Fisheries Science Center/NOAA) enlarge image F/V Mary K crew member Henrique Franco displays a monkfish caught during the 2001south cooperative monkfish survey. (Credit: Northeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA)

Related Links Cooperative Monkfish Research Program

Friday the 13th of February turned out to be a memorable day for the Endurance, which had just started working on the first sampling survey in the Gulf of Maine. Just after 1 a.m. the Captain heard an alarm, signaling the vessel was taking on water in a small secured compartment in the fish hold. The pumps started working, but to be safe, the captain headed the vessel toward port in Rockland, Maine to fix the problem. He also made a call to the Coast Guard for an additional pump as a backup.

Once in port a diver determined the problem: Endurance had tangled with offshore lobster pots that dislodged a bilge plug. The plug was replaced, and the vessel was back in service on Saturday.

“The professionalism of the vessel owner, crew and scientists was recognized by the Coast Guard,” John Hoey said of the incident, noting that the Endurance was back at work in less then 48 hours after the alarm had sounded.

The Endurance encountered more excitement on February 27 as the fishing vessel worked off Cape Ann. With poor weather setting in, Endurance headed for port at Gloucester, Mass., but diverted a bit from the cruise plan to try to retrieve a NOAA trawl and associated electronic gear. The gear had been lost during the August 2008 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission northern shrimp survey aboard the Center’s 72-foot research vessel Gloria Michelle.

The shrimp survey gear had snagged something on the bottom, and the Gloria Michelle could not pull it free. The crew thoroughly documented the location, and in November 2008 the NOAA Ship Albatross IV tried unsuccessfully to recover the gear while in the vicinity during the annual fall bottom trawl survey.

Rob Johnston, NEFSC field coordinator for the monkfish survey, told the Endurance Captain about the lost equipment, which happened to be in an area the vessel would pass as it headed for port. “They made a pass and the crew saw something on sonar that they believed was the lost gear in about 75 fathoms (about 450 feet) of water in Scantum Basin in the Gulf of Maine. They put a grapple out and made a pass, catching it on the edge, but it slipped off. They made a second pass and caught it squarely in the middle. In less than two hours they had located and safely recovered about $40,000 worth of equipment for the NEFSC.”

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