Since Bronwyn won the backgammon tournament against Captain John, I'm giving her the night off and guest blogging for her.

So, did you figure out what Jeremy was doing in that small, boxy, net like thing? That would be the brilliant idea of my fellow Tufts grad, Chris Doller, a Senior Aquarist at the Aquarium.

Each collecting trip we spend one morning seining. Seining? Let me explain. We went out to a location called South Cat Cay with a net approximately 100 feet long by 10 feet wide. Using excellent team work (involving pullers, beaters, and Bronwyn, the only person willing to volunteer to be snorkler to look for snags), we did two seine pulls to collect some of the key species we were looking for on this trip--needlefish and barracuda. (Which was the bonus of being the snorkler, since Bronwyn was the first to see the two barracuda we caught, one of which we released).



So where did that pen come in? This invention was a place for us to keep the fish while we were waiting to transport them back to the boat. While we did note that we probably could have saved ourselves a bunch of construction time by simply buying a playpen, Chris's invention did allow us to provide a safe and healthy environment for the fish prior to transport back to the boat, rather than putting them immediately into coolers. And we were quite lucky to catch an enormous number of needlefish, a barracuda, and grunts. Any other fish that we caught that we were not interested in, we released back into the ocean side and they were free to go.



After we returned from seining, we ate a delicious lunch (we could dedicate an entire blog to the delicious food that Matt has been preparing for us) and headed in for our afternoon dives.

On each trip, Sherrie selects a trip fish--this time, the black durgon. On the first dive of the afternoon, we caught our first one. Of course, there is a little competition over whose was the first--Sherrie and Captain Lou caught two, and Chris and Jeremy got one. We're not entirely sure who caught it first, although Chris and Jeremy got theirs to the barrel first--so you decide.



Ever wonder how we care for the fish on the boat? We're hoping tomorrow to show you how the barracuda eat.

Labels: barracuda, black durgon, Deb, May 2009, needlefish, seine nets, South Cat Cay

This morning we woke up and Captain John informed us that instead of diving we would be seining. This requires a lot of teamwork and skill and took about 20 minutes of debriefing before we launched the small boat and traveled to the beach. We had four people designated as net pullers (being of short stature I did not make the cut), then we had one snorkeler on the backside of the net to make sure it didn't get caught on rocks (me). The rest of the group lined up on either side and splashed the water like a two-year old throwing a temper tantrum in order to scare the fish into the middle.


Expedition members from use a seine net in May, 2008.

Once the 100 foot net reached the beach the entire group grabbed the top and bottom of the net and held it like a hammock. Then we slowly rolled the end towards the middle to gather the fish in one spot. We gathered until we were all in one big group circle shouting out the names of all the diverse fish we saw. After all that work we were finally able to scoop them out into waiting buckets.

Here is a highlight of what we got:
2 flat needlefish (Ablennes hians)
20 Atlantic needlefish (Strongylura timucu)
1 Atlantic spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber)
1 porgy (Calamus sp.)
1 doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus)
4 bandtail puffers (Sphoeroides spengleri)

The needlefish are a beautiful long iridescent fish that are the stars of the surface of the Giant Ocean Tank. In the ocean they calmly drift and blend in with the ripples of waves but when it is feeding time they can shoot towards prey with speed. Right now they are resting in one of our large holding tanks and snack daily on store-bought shrimp.

If it weren't for the fact that our meal tonight is going to be grilled 10-oz. boneless New York sirloin strip steak with roasted onion-garlic-shallot mashed potatoes, broiled parmesan asparagus, and corn off the cob, I would be jealous of the needlefish! Well, I better be off, looks like it is dinner time!

- Megan Moore

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Labels: Megan Moore, needlefish, seine nets, September 2008, spadefish

Going on this trip has so far been fun because of the numerous dives, delicious food, and enjoyable company. In addition to all of that I found out that there is quite a process that starts with a diver splashing into 85 degree Bahamian water and ends with someone being able to look through the glass of the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) and observe a complex and beautiful ecosystem.


An example of dinner on the Coral Reef II (taken during the May, 2008 expedition)



I should first mention a couple of reasons why the New England Aquarium chooses to catch their exhibit fish with hand held nets. The first one is that this biannual trip provides an engaging and educational vacation for the participants. In fact, five out of the eight participants on this trip are repeat participants from previous trips! Secondly, when it comes to collecting fish, this method allows us to take just the right number of fish and species that we need without harm to any other fish or the environment. Catching by hand allows us to be very specific with what we want without taking any bycatch. In addition, using nets gives the fish a fair fighting chance--in fact most of the time they win and the divers are left shouting unheard expletives into the open water.


Expedition members using hand held nets

However, if we are fortunate enough and we catch a fish with our nets we are careful to bring the fish up. We do this by clipping our catch bag to a barrel underwater and slowly bring up the barrel (5 feet every 10 minutes). This allows their swim bladders to slowly adjust and reduces stress to the fish. Once they are at the surface everyone is involved in a mad dash to place the fish in a bucket, find out the species of fish, count them all and then place them in the correct tank (of which there are about 25).

Then to take care of the fish the staff wake up, before the sun, and do a full system check. This involves observing the fish (right now there are about 200) for aggressive behavior, checking the amount of dissolved oxygen and the temperature of all of the tanks, and backwashing the system to help improve water flow. Most of the animals are fed chopped up shrimp or, if they are tiny animals, brine shrimp (otherwise known as sea monkeys). Thinking back on all of the responsibilities we have during the day to take care of these 200 fish it really makes me appreciate all the work our aquarists do back at the New England Aquarium - they have almost 30,000 animals of around 800 different species to look after! Well, it has been a full day I better get some rest so that I can do even more tomorrow.

- Megan Moore

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Labels: Megan Moore, seine nets, September 2008, vinyl nets

Temp: 85
Skies: Clear
Seas: Calm
Underwater visibility: Fantastic!

After a check-in dive (to get familiar with the local waters) and a teach-in on the ins and outs of catching fish with vinyl nets on a stick (somewhat like using a butterfly net while 25 feet underwater), we headed to Three Sisters Rock just offshore from Bimini for the major event of the day. The goal: to round up several dozen French grunts (Haemulon flavolineatum) and smallmouth grunts (Haemulon chrysargyreum shown at right).

This was an unbelievable experience for a diver like me, since I was only recently certified. The basic strategy goes like this:

Four to five divers station themselves around the perimeter of a barrier net (somewhat like a seine net). Then another group of divers wielding vinyl box nets in outstretched arms attempt to herd a large--make that very large--school of grunts in the barrier net. It looks kind of like the old safari movies when the "beaters" drive the big game into the sights of the waiting hunters, except our task really is to bring 'em back alive.

Once the grunts are in place, the divers gradually encircle the fish with the net. Then, using the vinyl box nets, five to 10 fish at a time are transferred to the nearby "grunt hotel," about 10 yards away. The experts then select the desired species to share with our visitors back in Boston, while gently letting the others go.

And a good day it was. The tally for the dive: 38 French grunts and 17 small mouth grunts. And a special bonus: one spotted spiny lobster (Panulirus guttatus) and one Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) Both are clawless version of the Homarus americanus we're all used to in back home in New England.

There was another terrific treat upon returning to the boat. We discovered chef Mat had prepared crab rangoon for our afternoon snack. (From sustainable sources, of course!) Very tasty!

Captain John then fired up the engines for the 7 hour trip to the Berry Islands, 80 miles east of Bimini. We look forward to a great day tomorrow, and we'll keep you posted on the "catch."

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Labels: Bimini, Bud Ris, catching fish, grunts, May 2008, seine nets, spiny lobster, Three Sisters Rock, vinyl nets