Tag Archives: rugged and strange conditions

El Nino brings rugged and strange conditions for deep sea fishers

The El Nino weather pattern has made for a strange season of deep sea fishing and some rugged weather conditions for crews to deal with. Talley’s director Andrew Talley said the hoki season had been a good one with plenty of decent sized fish caught. The squid catch had also been good, but the albacore and skipjack tuna seasons had been poor, he said. The changes El Nino brought about in ocean currents, water temperature and feed all affected marine productivity, Talley said. “Ultimately we see that in how these various commercial fisheries perform year to year. The El Nino weather pattern also resulted in stronger than normal winds. The Talley’s owned Amaltal Columbia battled 6 metre swells and 35-45 knot winds when fishing for hoki 150km south of Bluff early this month. A photo of the fishing boat [above] at that time shows the severity of the weather conditions experienced by the 45 crew members working on board the 64 metre long vessel. Read the rest here 08:15