A Steady Day with Miami AMI

October 22, 2010

We set out on Friday with high hopes for our day of research. Because we had been coming up shy, we decided we were going to put out 30 drumlines along our site this time.  We knew we were in for a long day, but with the beautiful weather and calm seas we assured the crew that it would be great and Dramamine free trip!  Today on our trip the kids from Miami AMI joined the RJD team to help get some great shark data.

The kids put the drumlines in the water making sure they noted which numbers were there’s to insure bragging rights if their drumline was a lucky one…get a group of boys together and everything becomes a competition!  They even kissed the bait for good luck, which soon proved lucky!

First drumline, shark on the line, second drumline, shark on the line, third drumline, shark on the line.  The start of the day was proving to be a great success!

As we approached lunchtime however things got a little slow.  The team had a quick bite to eat and then resumed sharking.  After a few quiet lines, a lively lemon was pulled up.  A large female, about 6 feet was pulled onboard and the team worked quickly.  After returning her to the water safely, the next line revealed a male lemon! This is a rare find- most of the sharks that the team had been catching were female, so it was good to see that there was a male in the area. The team caught a total of 9 sharks- a combination of blacknose, blacktips, and lemons.  It was a great day indeed! As we pulled back up to the dock, our team stretched and yawned, sighed and smiled at the thought of our long day and great success.