From Marquesas to Bimini

I'm way behind in this blog, but here's a VERY rough overview of what's been going on.

Marquesas Cruise
The work in the Marquesas was amazing. There were two teams: home and away. The away team, consisting of two groups on two small skiffs, worked 12 hour shifts through the night (a full tidal cycle) setting nets in the lagoon. Once a juvenile lemon shark was caught in the net, the net boat would transport the shark to the tagging boat for a workup. The tagging boat would take length and weight measurements, note condition, and tag the shark with a PIT tag if it did not have would already. In addition, it would add a Casey tag. Once the workup was over, the shark was released. This whole process took place from about 7pm to 7am. Midway through the cruise, the crews switched, so I got to do both home and away team work. While I was on the home team, Dr. Gruber (Doc) took us shark fishing for the big guys. Three off us in a Carolina Skiff headed to the flats to reel in adults on rod and reel. On the first day, we trolled for baracuda for bait, and I reeled in a 4ft toad. When we used it as bait, we hooked 1.5-2m lemon sharks left and right. Once we reeled them in, we tied them up to the boat and did a workup, much like the ones the away teams do on the juveniles caught in the net during the night.

The whole crew was great, and everyone had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina was looming, and we had to cut short and head back to Key West. When we got into Key West on Thursday night, it was calm. When we woke up on Friday morning, the hurricane was roaring. We were tied up at the dock, but we were rocking badly in the chop. Several boats tied up around us sank, and during the storm, a 90ft tugboat got loose in the harbor and drifted toward us. Luckily, it missed us and instead beached itself after hitting a seawall. Our boat suffered minimal damage, but we were very lucky. As we drove out of the Keys, there we saw a lot of damage. However, nothing like what happened in the Gulf, it appears.

Bimini
I'm now in Bimini, where I arrived two days ago. The lab is amazing. Grant, the lab manager (who was also with me on the Marquesas trip) gave me the tour, and I began learning some basic skills: radio usage, knot-tying, shark tracking with hydrophones, and shark handling. Grant and I sat in a 10ft diameter pen with 3 juvenile lemon sharks swimming around us while he explained the proper way to handle them. After the crash course, I had a go. It was very cool to be holding a lemon shark wth one hand just below the surface while he continues his swimming motion.

Today we had a day off, so I took the ferry to North Bimini, walked the length of the whole island, snorkeled, played some pool at the Big Game Club, and had dinner at a little local deli.

Tomorrow I should be learning some boat handling, and hopefully then get out into the field to do some tracking.

This is a ridiculously incomplete update on what's been going on, but internet is so slow and I have to share one computer with 18 people. I'll do my best, so please be patient!