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Mar. 21st, 2003 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishI guess I will post something in order to move that "peace" thing down the page a bit so it doesn't piss off ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
avphibes so much. I'm really not trying to be holier that thou, and I really don't know how I would solve the situation. That's why I'm a biologist and not a politician. It just seems as though it could have been done without alienating most of the rest of the world. although now that it's started, some countries seem to be changing their minds. I just hope it's over with quickly, and they had better find what they were looking for.
Anyhow.....
I was sitting here brooding about state of world affairs and unsuccessfully trying to accomplish something here at work, when I got an email telling me that the minutes of the Trinational Sardine Symposium that I attended in December were available. While I was looking that up, I also noticed a link for the Southwest Fisheries Science Center's Shark Research page. This brought back some fond memories. At one time, I was in charge of the DFG's shark tagging program, and I got to work with Dave and Darlene out on the R/V David Starr Jordan, during our joint cruises. This is what I got to do for a couple weeks every summer when the sharks were migrating through the Southern California Bight (if you look at a map of California, it's where it looks like someone bit off the bottom corner of it - from Point Conception (a little west of Santa Barbara to the Mexican Border). We also had tagging cruises on our own R/V Mako, less than half the size and not nearly as luxurious (the Jordan had a gym and video lounge, ferchrissakes) but no less beloved. I really liked doing the tagging program - most of the tagging was done by sport fishermen out fishing on their own- but I really relished going on these cruises, especially Dave's, where I didn't have to be the BIC (Biologist-In-Charge, Biologist-Incompetent, or Biologist-Is-Crazy, depending on who you talk to). I love going out, but I hate organizing everything.
There is nothing like seeing a wild shark up close and personal. We used a longline to catch them; this is a mile long cable with baited dropper lines every 50 feet or so, and a float every few hundred feet to keep the whole thing near the surface. One person stood just aft of the net reel, snapping on the droppers and float lines as the mainline ran off the net reel, while a pair of people stood on either side of the reel, one readying the floats and the other baiting the hooks with whole mackerel. After the whole thing ran out, we let it soak for a couple of hours. Then we would haul the line back in, measure, sex and tag the sharks, cut the hook with some bolt cutters and release them. The Jordan has a very nice setup, since it was a larger ship with a net ramp, they installed a wooden platform where we could sit and work with the sharks right next to the water. This worked well for even fairly large sharks. On the Mako, there was no ramp and we were forced to guesstimate lengths and tag the larger sharks using a stick from 4 ft. above them, since they were too heavy to lift and it would have been somewhat dangerous to bring 4-5 ft. mako on the deck (for us, and for the shark, which might hurt itself thrashing around).
We caught mostly blue and mako sharks. At the time, we did not want to catch thresher sharks - they were just too big and did not survive well. We timed the cruises so it occurred after the threshers had migrated through the area, and there were more makos (our primary interest) appearing in the Bight. Apparently now, they use a much shorter soak time and a shorter line, so the animals survive and are tagged with tracking devices.
When the blues came up, they would always be lazily circling - "OK, you can let me off now." Slim and snakelike, they seldom fought much and generally behaved themselves; however, we treated their business ends with respects - their smooth lipped mouths belie the fact that there are saw blades just behind them. It would often take several tries to tag the females, as their hides are nearly twice as thick as the males - an adaptation from the males biting them when they mate. They are tough critters too. Once one came in completely tangled in the line, so wrapped up it couldn't move. We laboriously untangled it, but it did not seem to be responsive. We tagged it anyway, and put it back in the water, just in case, but sadly, it just sank out of sight. Two years later, however, it was caught in a purse seiners net eating squid, about 150 miles away at Santa Rosa Island.
The makos are a different story. Often called "the poor man's marlin," makos fight, jump and are generally aggressive. They are a more slender and athletic relative of white sharks, fast enough to feed on tunas, and like their prey, they are warm-blooded. Colored a striking cobalt blue and silver, their bullet-like bodies show a marked resemblance to other fast swimming fish like tunas, swordfish and marlins - none of whom are closely related. They have sickle shaped tails, a flattened keel in front of it, and a pointy nose which gives little obstruction to the outwardly-directed, needle-sharp teeth shortly behind. They are beautiful fish, but have been known to try and chew off a boat's swim steps and go after blue water divers (well, you're in their habitat, they have a perfect right to consider you prey). We had just tagged a little one once, only about two feet long, and released him, when he turned around and swam back at us full speed with his jaws wide open. You never saw someone jump four feet straight up so fast in your life!
Anyhow, my bosses assigned the tagging program to someone else, and it was eventually cancelled due to budget cuts and reprioritizing. One of the manager told us it wasn't important because "all you're going to find out is that sharks swim around a lot." Well, sure, but a similar program on the east coast has been going for nearly forty years, and they say they are only in the last few years beginning to see migration patterns. That's in the Atlantic, a much smaller ocean. Now I'm stuck at a desk much of the time, except when I get out to the docks, and writing a lot. I don't feel like I'm in a rut, but dammit, it was kind of neat to be able to tell people I worked with sharks. "I work with sardines," just does quite have the same ring.
Ah well. Sardines aren't romantic or glamorous, but just as deserving.
avphibes so much. I'm really not trying to be holier that thou, and I really don't know how I would solve the situation. That's why I'm a biologist and not a politician. It just seems as though it could have been done without alienating most of the rest of the world. although now that it's started, some countries seem to be changing their minds. I just hope it's over with quickly, and they had better find what they were looking for.Anyhow.....
I was sitting here brooding about state of world affairs and unsuccessfully trying to accomplish something here at work, when I got an email telling me that the minutes of the Trinational Sardine Symposium that I attended in December were available. While I was looking that up, I also noticed a link for the Southwest Fisheries Science Center's Shark Research page. This brought back some fond memories. At one time, I was in charge of the DFG's shark tagging program, and I got to work with Dave and Darlene out on the R/V David Starr Jordan, during our joint cruises. This is what I got to do for a couple weeks every summer when the sharks were migrating through the Southern California Bight (if you look at a map of California, it's where it looks like someone bit off the bottom corner of it - from Point Conception (a little west of Santa Barbara to the Mexican Border). We also had tagging cruises on our own R/V Mako, less than half the size and not nearly as luxurious (the Jordan had a gym and video lounge, ferchrissakes) but no less beloved. I really liked doing the tagging program - most of the tagging was done by sport fishermen out fishing on their own- but I really relished going on these cruises, especially Dave's, where I didn't have to be the BIC (Biologist-In-Charge, Biologist-Incompetent, or Biologist-Is-Crazy, depending on who you talk to). I love going out, but I hate organizing everything.
There is nothing like seeing a wild shark up close and personal. We used a longline to catch them; this is a mile long cable with baited dropper lines every 50 feet or so, and a float every few hundred feet to keep the whole thing near the surface. One person stood just aft of the net reel, snapping on the droppers and float lines as the mainline ran off the net reel, while a pair of people stood on either side of the reel, one readying the floats and the other baiting the hooks with whole mackerel. After the whole thing ran out, we let it soak for a couple of hours. Then we would haul the line back in, measure, sex and tag the sharks, cut the hook with some bolt cutters and release them. The Jordan has a very nice setup, since it was a larger ship with a net ramp, they installed a wooden platform where we could sit and work with the sharks right next to the water. This worked well for even fairly large sharks. On the Mako, there was no ramp and we were forced to guesstimate lengths and tag the larger sharks using a stick from 4 ft. above them, since they were too heavy to lift and it would have been somewhat dangerous to bring 4-5 ft. mako on the deck (for us, and for the shark, which might hurt itself thrashing around).
We caught mostly blue and mako sharks. At the time, we did not want to catch thresher sharks - they were just too big and did not survive well. We timed the cruises so it occurred after the threshers had migrated through the area, and there were more makos (our primary interest) appearing in the Bight. Apparently now, they use a much shorter soak time and a shorter line, so the animals survive and are tagged with tracking devices.
When the blues came up, they would always be lazily circling - "OK, you can let me off now." Slim and snakelike, they seldom fought much and generally behaved themselves; however, we treated their business ends with respects - their smooth lipped mouths belie the fact that there are saw blades just behind them. It would often take several tries to tag the females, as their hides are nearly twice as thick as the males - an adaptation from the males biting them when they mate. They are tough critters too. Once one came in completely tangled in the line, so wrapped up it couldn't move. We laboriously untangled it, but it did not seem to be responsive. We tagged it anyway, and put it back in the water, just in case, but sadly, it just sank out of sight. Two years later, however, it was caught in a purse seiners net eating squid, about 150 miles away at Santa Rosa Island.
The makos are a different story. Often called "the poor man's marlin," makos fight, jump and are generally aggressive. They are a more slender and athletic relative of white sharks, fast enough to feed on tunas, and like their prey, they are warm-blooded. Colored a striking cobalt blue and silver, their bullet-like bodies show a marked resemblance to other fast swimming fish like tunas, swordfish and marlins - none of whom are closely related. They have sickle shaped tails, a flattened keel in front of it, and a pointy nose which gives little obstruction to the outwardly-directed, needle-sharp teeth shortly behind. They are beautiful fish, but have been known to try and chew off a boat's swim steps and go after blue water divers (well, you're in their habitat, they have a perfect right to consider you prey). We had just tagged a little one once, only about two feet long, and released him, when he turned around and swam back at us full speed with his jaws wide open. You never saw someone jump four feet straight up so fast in your life!
Anyhow, my bosses assigned the tagging program to someone else, and it was eventually cancelled due to budget cuts and reprioritizing. One of the manager told us it wasn't important because "all you're going to find out is that sharks swim around a lot." Well, sure, but a similar program on the east coast has been going for nearly forty years, and they say they are only in the last few years beginning to see migration patterns. That's in the Atlantic, a much smaller ocean. Now I'm stuck at a desk much of the time, except when I get out to the docks, and writing a lot. I don't feel like I'm in a rut, but dammit, it was kind of neat to be able to tell people I worked with sharks. "I work with sardines," just does quite have the same ring.
Ah well. Sardines aren't romantic or glamorous, but just as deserving.
