Dave Holts, off Ucluelet, British Columbia. At the crack of dawn on Saturday, July 21, we were off to the fishing grounds.  The seas were a little milder -- 4-foot swells with scattered whitecaps. We were able to make two fishing sets. In the first, we caught 4 blue sharks with 47 hooks. The second brought up 8 blues.  None of these were big enough to place the satellite tags on, but we were able to collect all the other data we wanted.  As we were returning to Ucluelet, the Coast Guard issued a gale warning. By the time we tied up back in port, the wind was gusting to nearly 30 knots with heavy rain. 

So, it wasn’t a big surprise when Sunday turned out to be a bad weather day. Although the storm had mostly passed out area, coastal weather warnings still called for 10-foot seas. Fortunately for me, we can’t work in 10-foot seas, so we stayed in Ucluelet. Had a nice walk around town, a cappuccino in one of the local pubs and returned to the ship to review our data.  Yep.

On Monday, July 23, we departed early and reached the fishing grounds by 10:30 a.m. It was a good day -- the sea state was a little sloppy, but OK to fish. Because I’d got my sea legs, I was happy I survived the bad weather last Monday. We made 2 sets and caught 22 blue sharks. Two were large enough to deployed satellite tags on. In the photo above, we've got a shark in the tagging cradle. We put a cloth over its eyes to keep it calm, and, in its mouth, a hose that streams seawater over its gills so that it can breathe. After we finish putting the tags on, we pick it up and put it back in the water. Here's a photo of Jackie and Sandy just before they released a tagged shark.

Tuesday was a very good day. We caught 37 blues. We were fortunate to catch 5 blue sharks over 6 feet long, and we deployed satellite tags on them. We ended the day needing to catch only one more blue shark over 6 feet long to deploy our last satellite tags. 

Even though sharks were most interesting to us on this trip, there are other creatures that caught our attention. Here's a photo of a very large orange jellyfish in the water right next to the boat.