Ghost fish farms on Spanish and Portuguese Coast

[mainsail1]

A number of Spanish and Portuguese fish farms on the chart (latest) don't exist when you sail by. It can be a pain as on one occasion we made a diversion of some miles to avoid a fish farm that was not there.
Does anyone have information on what is going on??

 

[capnsensible]

If they are in the Gulf of Cadiz then they well be seasonal tuna traps.

 

[GHA]

A number of Spanish and Portuguese fish farms on the chart (latest) don't exist when you sail by. It can be a pain as on one occasion we made a diversion of some miles to avoid a fish farm that was not there.
Does anyone have information on what is going on??

charts are pretty much out of date before you get them though the spanish have latest harbour charts online somewhere which would be worth a look.
Marine traffic density is handy to see where people have been avoiding recently

 

[Beelzebub]

If they are in the Gulf of Cadiz then they well be seasonal tuna traps.

Barbate springs to mind

 

[capnsensible]

Barbate springs to mind

One of many.

 

[mainsail1]

Thanks guys.
We have now also passed ghost cardinals at the perimeter of a so called fish farm!

 

[GHA]

Thanks guys.
We have now also passed ghost cardinals at the perimeter of a so called fish farm!

Where was that? What charts are you using?
Would be interesting to see if latest cmap/navionics/Spanish hydro office shows better data.
None of it will be "right". But some might be less wrong and more useful. ?

 

[Graham376]

There's what appears to be a new fish farm between Guadiana and Monte Gordo, about 5nm offshore, which isn't on our local chart. Travelling from Faro, it's just to the east of an area off Monte Gordo which is marked by large yellow cans (not cardinals) which don't appear to be guarding anything.

 

[mainsail1]

I am using C map charts and Imray paper charts. The problems started to occur North of Cadiz and continued as we sailed South from Cadiz to Gib. The missing cardinals were a few miles South of Cadiz.

 

[mainsail1]

I should add that the Spanish Navy sailed straight through some of the fish farms marked off Cadiz so they know something I don't.
I think Capnsensible is correct that they are seasonal.

 

[GHA]

I am using C map charts and Imray paper charts. The problems started to occur North of Cadiz and continued as we sailed South from Cadiz to Gib. The missing cardinals were a few miles South of Cadiz.

Can't find any fishfarms on navionics/ cmap or elderly cm93.. some yellows mark marine farm off Cabo Roche but nothing else seems to show up apart from the tunny nets off Barbate with dates. Not many tunny nets left now & tend to be well bouyed often with a local boat keeping an eye on things. Apparently the local fishermen can move the nets weekly/monthly so they might not be exactly as charted.
Don't see the fishfarms you mentioned on the charts though.

 

[capnsensible]

I should add that the Spanish Navy sailed straight through some of the fish farms marked off Cadiz so they know something I don't.
I think Capnsensible is correct that they are seasonal.

Also seasonal are the huge number of pot markers that are a hazard all around the Gulf of Cadiz. Harts are, as always, for guidance. Nothing beats a sharp lookout!

In our pilot book we also highlighted the ODAS bouys which are poorly marked and a definite hazard. The worst offenders are the one off Cariz, a bit north of the shore gunnery range,,,,,,which is used often and doesn't stop for passing yachts... and the really difficult one south east of the entrance to Tarifa.

Go careful out there!

 

[WindyWindyWindy]

You get seasonal fish traps all along the southern Spanish coast.

Fish farms do tend to appear and disappear. I wish they'd mark the channels between them. You can be confronted by an endless forest of flashing yellow lights at night around here.

Buoyed marks in general can go missing, or appear suddenly. Passage plans should consider that possibility.

 

[WindyWindyWindy]

When traveling through the gulf of Cadiz once there was a live fire exercise about to start and after several hassling calls to leave the area I overheard one yachtie responding "Spanish Warship, this is xxx, I can only do 4 knots, this is going to take a while"

 

[GHA]

some links so you can all have a look at various sources...

IdeIHM
Bathymetry
Navionics ChartViewer
Chart Explorer | C-MAP
https://www.hidrografico.pt/op/41

 

[mainsail1]

Thanks GHA . Wow....... C map is sooooo different from Navionics

 

[GHA]

Thanks GHA . Wow....... C map is sooooo different from Navionics

If you have a win laptop onboard sasplanet / opencpn is such a good resource.
Sasplanet has a back door into Navionics /cmap and many satellite sources. Sat images are gold dust for anchorages etc imho. In sasplanet the keyboard shortcuts let you jump from one source to another to see how well they match.
Also OpenCPN has dual screen so you could have zoomed out charts on one side with zoomed in sat images on the other. Or whatever you like
So much info online now with the likes of noforeignland & navily et al. ?