Fishy Fishy?

9* 35.1' N
101* 16.9' E
Heading 347*
Speed 1.5 kilometers per Day
Pipelaying.
Wind gentle 5 knot southerly breeze
Clear sky @ 0400 temp 82*

Fishy??
Where are you??
Hello fishy fishes.
Hello sharky warky. Hello dolphins.
Heeelllloooooo?????

There are none. Nothing. Just a few small tiddlers.
No sharks sighted, no dolphins sighted, and nothing showing up on our stinger cameras.
The seabed is barren, no plant life just a silty sh!ty sludge, no crabs or anything else.
Even when in close to a rig, the normal home of a myriad of sea life for the top predators down to the humble sea cucumber, there is a marked dearth of sea life of any type.
If you want a prime example of what over fishing can do to an area of the sea then go no further than here.
The fleets of Thailand, Cambodia Malaysia, Vietnam, have been netting and trawling and decimating the area for years using ever more sophisticated methods of catching a dwindling stock and now they have finally done it. There is sod all left.

"How can I be so sure?"  you may ask, well allow me elucidate.

We have a thing that sticks out the back of the barge called a Stinger.
It is made of 8 and 10 inch tubular steel as well as substantial box steel girders.
It is 50 meters long and 6 meters wide
It weighs 425 tons and its purpose is to guide the catenary of the pipe line as it exists the vessel and proceeds to the sea bed.
The method of pipe lay using a stinger form tyhe stern of the vessel is called "S" Lay as the profile looks like an elongated flattened S on its side.
It looks a bit like the thorax of a wasp hence the name "stinger".
On this current lay we have it at an angle of 13 degrees which means the end of it is at about 11 meters below the surface.
Most jobs we do, (in the average depths of water here of 70 meters) are done with the stinger tip at between 10 and 13 meters below the surface .
We have too high definition sub sea cameras on the stinger, one at the end looking back towards the ship and one looking across the end.
We also have an ROV in the water most of the time operating from 15 meters to 79 meters depth monitoring the touchdown and profile of the pipeline.

When you put a large construction of lattice steel in the sea, practically anywhere in the world, withing hours it has become a hotel for a wide diversity of fish from the tiddlers, who see it as haven, to the big predators who see it as a free take away, although they normally arrive later.

When we put the stinger in sometimes within minutes, and certainly within a few hours, the cameras look like they have been placed in a huge well stocked aquarium with a large variety of fish of all shapes and sizes using it as a sort of fish hotel and new habitat.
From  8* 30 to 10* 40 north that's 130 miles long by 40 miles wide we have no more than three or 4 piddley little fish in the stinger and not one predator. On the ROV we have only seen perhaps 5 "other fish" and we did have a lone cuttle fish the other night dancing in the camera spotlights.

200 miles south  in the Malaysian sector there were plenty of fish of all sizes knocking about and off Bali Indonesia and  Borneo and Papua New Guinea it was like fish soup, but up here it is a grim picture indeed.
I have seen more fish on the camera in the North Sea and that is pretty barren after decades of self interested, greed propelled, poorly managed and governed over-fishing I can assure you.

It is at time like this when you see the damage done by too many greedy people trying to scam a few quid today with no thought for tomorrow all fueled by corruption and avarice that leaves my heart heavy with sadness for the plight of the human animal.  :cry:  :cry:

Cheers
Bentley

I nearly forgot the music of the day and because I am sad I have  chosen a song that, although hauntingly beautiful and can convey a feeling of sadness it also shows that there is still the hope of light and moving forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXRExocnpUw