A fish blog.com

A couple of a days ago I received a couple of photos from the Southern Atlantic Ocean. The Norwegian research vessel “G.O.Sars” had finished its survey in the Antarctic Ocean and was heading north. Members of the crew was standing on the bow when they saw some strange fish jumping out of the water.

The flying fish use their unusual flying talent to escape predators – and in this case; a research vessels.

As you see from the pictures, the flying fish has unusual large pectoral fins which enable the fish to take short gliding flights through air. The glides are usually up to 30-50 meters in length. I guess this is not the easiest thing to capture in the camera lens as most species reach a maximum length of only 30 cm.

I must admit that I do not know much about flying fish. There are about 50 species of flying fish, and I can not tell which one you see on this post.
Photos: Leif Nøttestad and Øyvind Tangen.

There has been a lot of iceberg-posts recently, but this may be the last. The crew and the scientists on board the Norwegian research vessel “G.O.Sars” have now finished the survey. Sailing in the Antarctic ocean was an unique adventure for everyone who participated. Rare birds, whales and icebergs where stored in their minds and on memory cards. After passing the (now famous) marbled iceberg, the crew saw a large iceberg in the horizon. Photos: Leif Nøttestad.

It was a large tabular iceberg. A tabular iceberg (or tabletop iceberg) is an iceberg, with a flat, table-like surface. The one seen on this post is probably 400-500 meters long. Though it is large, it is far from the largest tabular iceberg seen in the Antarctic Ocean.

It is hard to estimate the seize of such an iceberg when seen from a distance. It is like a floating island (here seen with a wandering albatross in the foreground). Knowing that only one-tenth of the volume of an iceberg is above water, it is hard to comprehend the amount of ice stored in this iceberg.

While some icebergs are large and impressive, others are small. Like works of art they decorate the surface in the Antarctic Ocean…

Photo: Øyvind Tangen

In this post I want to show some photos taken by Leif Nøttestad during a survey in the Antarctic Ocean. This time the photos focus on different species of Albatross. Of the 21 species of albatrosses recognized by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), 19 are threatened with extinction.

The first photo shows a light-mantled sooty albatross.

The wandering albatross is the biggest albatross, and some photos of this species has been shown in a previous post.

Below you see a photo of a black-browed albatross. Like most albatross species this bird is considered as endangered but it is still the most widespread and common albatross.

The last photo shows a royal albatross. It has an average wingspan of almost 3 m and is the second largest albatross.

All photos: Leif Nøttestad.

The wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) is the largest seabird in the Southern oceans. It has the largest wingspan of any living bird. According to Wikipedia the longest-winged examples verified have been about 3.7 m (12 ft), but probably erroneous reports of as much as 5.3 m (17.5 ft) are known.

The albatross spend months hunting on the open sea. They feed mostly on krill, squid and small fish. The photos on this post show wandering albatross in the Antarctic Ocean. Most albatross species are considered as “treatened”. One of the main threats is long-line fishing. The albatross dives to take the bait as the long-lines are set. If the bird gets hooked on the line, it will drown. Commercial long-liners have been trying out new ways of setting the lines to avoid seabirds as by-catch.

The photos on this post is taken by Øyvind Tangen.