Tuna Gonad Collection Trip to Oregon Inlet, North Carolina

June 14-19, 2014

A week ago today, Gabriel, Danielle, and I arrived home from a successful trip to Oregon Inlet. For those of you that don’t know, Oregon Inlet Fishing Center is the best spot to catch fish on the east coast. In addition to loads of inshore fish, the charters that head out from Oregon Inlet catch huge numbers of offshore fish, 40 miles southeast and closer. The proximity of the continental shelf to the fishing pier makes this a highly desirable, lucrative spot to run a charter boat. 

The three of us headed south because for a few months when spring turns into summer, Oregon Inlet sees limits of yellowfin tuna every single day. A “limit” of yellowfin means 3 fish per angler, or a total of 18 per boat. About 28 boats go out every day depending on the weather and they rarely return to the dock without their limit, so that is a total of 504 yellowfin tuna per day if every boat heads offshore. 

We headed down around dinnertime on Saturday, June 14 to Nags Head, North Carolina. It is only about a 12 hour drive, but given tolls, getting lost in Delaware, and making sure everyone was caffeinated through the night, we were able to check into the hotel around 10:30 on Sunday morning. I called up Fred, our contact in the Fish Cleaning House, as soon as we set our stuff down in the hotel and I got a “ya’ll better get down here or you’re gonna be late! They’re bringin’ in tons of yellowfin already!” Ah, the thick, welcoming, and super-friendly southern accent beckoning us to the dock. It turns out, some of the boats catch their limit within two hours of fishing and head back to the dock early. After nearly zero sleep, the three of us headed down to Oregon Inlet to see what the fuss is all about. 

We pull in, meet Fred, and realize how amazing the setup is down there. Oregon Inlet works like a well oiled machine. The captains put paying customers on the fish, the mates help the anglers catch, and very little blood hits the cockpit. Once they arrive back at the dock, pictures of nearly every fish are taken, and a pickup truck moves fish in Rubbermaid barrels from the dock to the Fish Cleaning House. The Fish Cleaning House is where 6-8 strong men weigh and fillet fish for customers. It may sound easy but when you think about the sheer numbers- (i.e. 4 boats alone bringing in 2000+ lbs of tuna fillets) it is an immense task. The guys are set up very well, with an air conditioned room with stainless steel counters and hoses everywhere. Next to the room where they cut the fish is a huge refrigerated room where they store fish that need to be cut up and fish racks, so there is zero fish stench near the docks or building. 

They let us set up on the back side of the Fish Cleaning House on a deck that is about 12’ by 15’ where we set up a folding table, laid down measuring tape for straight fork length, and had coolers full of ice ready to accept bagged gonads. We were able to weigh, get curved fork length, and remove gonads from some whole fish, but we mainly had access to racks of fish. We only used racks if the spine was 100% intact to get a straight fork length, but we were unable to weigh these fish. Fortunately, when the fish cutters remove the loins, the gut area is left alone and the gonads are unaltered. The first day, on zero sleep, we were able to get about 105 gonad samples. Back at the hotel, we weighed the gonads, gave them a gross maturation stage (i.e. how developed does it look), and cut small slivers to store in neutral buffered formalin for later histological analysis under the microscope. Our initial plan was to obtain 200 samples over the course of the trip, but I brought enough supplies to get 400 gonad samples. 

For the second day, we had arranged with Fred for him to call us and let us know when the first boats came back. Because there were a lot of private boats heading out, Fred thought it would take the charter boats slightly longer to catch their limit. The next morning we woke up, had sweet potato biscuits free at the hotel for breakfast, and headed to mini golf at Mutiny Bay. Even though it was fun and Gabe definitely won, it was super hot in the sun and we were ready to get back to sampling. On the second sampling day, we were able to get 101 samples. That night, we went to Mulligan’s Raw Bar and enjoyed some local seafood and some guy with a guitar out on the deck at night. If you’re curious what he sounded like, this was the guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nhs2ZWHHVM

 

On the third sampling day, we stopped by Bodie Island lighthouse for a few pictures and then drove a bit further south. We headed down to check out Cape Hatteras lighthouse before heading back to Oregon Inlet for the afternoon. It was a priority for the sampling crew and we were only about 45 minutes away. The three of us walked up all 268 steps of the tallest brick lighthouse in the world. It was great! It also happened to be 15 years to the day (June 17) that the lighthouse began being moved from its original location to where it sits now, due to concerns about erosion. 

The third sampling day we were worried that we might not get enough samples for the rest of the trip, due to wind offshore. We made a group decision to get as many samples as we possibly could that day, because we were not sure if we could get any more samples until Friday. That third day, we managed to collect 194 tuna samples!!

After getting almost 400 samples in 3 days (some samples were unusable), we really needed a break. We worked late into the night to weigh and cut up all the samples on Tuesday night, stopping only to scarf down pizza that we had delivered to the hotel. We celebrated the success of getting all of the samples that we possibly could that night by jumping into the ocean around 3:00 in the morning.

Wednesday, Danielle and I were not feeling so great, so we had an easy morning organizing samples, typing up data, cleaning up the mess from sampling, and going for a swim in the beautiful ocean. We were lucky enough to find a cheaper hotel (buy 3 nights get one free special!) that just happened to be on the water. We decided to swing by the aquarium on Roanoke Island to check out the sea otters, sand tiger sharks, puffer fish, and all white alligator. It was awesome! That night we ate at the Sugar Shack and tried some local fish, shrimp, fried green tomatoes, and even soft shell crab! The seafood down in North Carolina is unparalleled. We finished packing that night and hit the road early on Thursday morning. 

All in all a great success! We got more samples than we intended, filled every sample tube we brought with us, learned a ton about yellowfin gonads, and even managed to see a few sights along the way.

Semester one of grad school

So I realize I haven’t written in a couple of months (thanks for reminding me, Uncle BJ!)… but here’s a new post finally!

I’m doing fabulously- I absolutely love my life! I work a lot but I feel like my work is meaningful- the fish that we have are thriving, and this project is looking really promising. Right now, we have 1 yellowfin, 2 bluefin, and 4 false albacore in the tank. The numbers have fluctuated a bit, but these fish are doing really really well. The yellowfin’s name is Yellowmon (you have to say it in a Jamaican accent), and the bluefin are Bullitt and Blind Willie. It’s really difficult to tell the false albacore apart, so they don’t really have names. These fish go crazy when they see us in the window of the tank- they’re like pets. They’ll eat out of our hands, and I really like them. I’ve never been so attached to a couple of fish in my entire life. Plus, I don’t really eat tuna like I used it. I don’t think I’ve had tuna since June.

So we haven’t gotten to use the aquapod this season, and today we’re actually going to try to roll it up the beach here at the bay campus with a lot of mechanical power. My professor and coworker are both on the boat, but I’m here feeding fish and taking it easy because I worked all weekend. We haven’t gotten to use the aquapod because we’ve gone on a much cooler trip.

Ever seen Shark Wranglers on the history channel? Well the boat that they take out on that show is the Ocearch. The Ocearch was docked up in New Bedford, MA, and wasn’t doing anything for a couple of days so we got to take it out tuna fishing. I stayed behind (somebody has to care for the fish we already have), and the boys went out for five days fishing on the 126’ boat. The strategy there was to use the ballast tanks to transport tuna rather than using the aquapod to tow behind the boat to hold the tuna. The trip was very successful (although many of the fish they caught were too big for our tank), and that’s where Yellowmon came from. There's a couple of pictures of the process of transporting the fish, as well as a picture of a yellowfin in the ballast tank. The crew was SO cool in person- we all went out for dinner in Newport with them and had a blast!! The picture of me, Molly (one of my friends) and the guy in the middle is one of the crewmembers from the Ocearch, named Juan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hurricane was pretty bad around here- part of the Narragansett seawall crumbled into the ocean, places in Matunick were destroyed, and sand was totally moved around. We lost power for 3 days I think, but the worst part was the flooding. The picture below is of my road underwater!!

Halloween was fun around here too- kind of interesting because that was the day that we had gotten power back from the hurricane. Billy came over and we watched Halloween movies, I made dinner, and we handed out candy to all the kids. My first Halloween to have a bunch of little kids trick or treating at my door!! Look at our awesome pumpkins- I carved the ghost one and he carved the bird one.

My roommates are wonderful- I wouldn’t trade them for anybody. We’re all so different but have yet to have any issues in the house. Everybody is really respectful, nice to everyone else’s guests, and willing to compromise. I love them!!

Billy is good too- he loved coming home and meeting a bunch of friends and family, so I’m sure he’ll be around during Christmastime as well. I love spending time with him. There’s a picture of us at a corn maze below.

School is going well- only two more weeks and I’m done with my first semester of classes of graduate school! The time sure does fly by.

That’s all for now, I promise I won’t wait 3 or 4 months to post again.

J

Added responsibility...

This past month things at work have gone from “well, this is exciting!” to “oh my god I can’t believe this is what I get to do for work!!!!!!!!!!” One of my main reasons for wanting to join this project for my master’s degree is that every day brings new things and I’ve absolutely come to expect that.

We’ve got multiple things going on in the lab right now. Donald and I successfully got most of the eggs to hatch, fed them tiny algae eating organisms (rotifers) until they grew a bit, switched them to artemia (sea monkeys, slightly larger than rotifers), and now they’re eating dry feed. It takes a LOT of work to get larval fish through their first few weeks of life. Now that caring for them is easy again, the mummichogs should lay more eggs. 

(see pictures of the eggs just days before they hatched!!!)

Also, we’re working on acquiring fish from fish traps owned by two different commercial fishermen off of the beaches up here and going tuna fishing ourselves (we haven’t had the best luck because for some reason this year offshore fishing just hasn’t been very good).  

Last Monday we built the absolute coolest thing I’ve ever worked on in my entire life. We constructed an “aquapod,” which is a 26 foot diameter geodesic sphere (sphere made up of triangles, one of the strongest structures around) used to transport fish. It’s essentially an enormous cage that took 10 of us about 10 hours to complete. The idea is to have a couple of boats offshore, fishing, who will work on filling the cage, and then to have a tugboat tow the cage (once filled with fish) back to shore where we will then move the fish into the tank on campus. With acquiring and constructing the aquapod, we certainly have run into some difficulties! People drove down from Maine, and two flew in from Puerto Rico and Peru to help us construct it. After they left, we determined that we still have some things to figure out, like what the towing bridle will look like, how to cut all of the bolts, what lift bags to use and how to attach them, etc.

(see pictures of the aquapod being constructed!)

What’s pretty cool about this project is that even though I’ve been working on it just over two months, I’m treated with the utmost respect and I can tell that I am both highly appreciated as well as trusted in my decision making. Dr. Bradley’s been in New Zealand, Taylor’s been in Tanzania, and Donald is leaving the project end of next week, so I’ve been “stepping up to the plate” according to Dr. Bradley. I LOVE the added responsibility- there’s a lot of pride in the work that I do because I’m seeing things from start to finish. I’ve also been working closely with Peter (the person that created this project), Chris the tug boat captain, and Roger and crew from Pointview Marina. 

Never a dull moment in this job- today Peter and I went to meet with makers of infinity pools- those pools that are only like 12’ long which generate a current to keep a swimmer swimming. We may have to look at getting something like that for tuna, as tuna need to keep swimming in order to breathe. 

Also, last week I went to Block Island with the folks and Josh for one night to get away from work stress and spend some time with the family. I absolutely loved it- Block Island is definitely one of my favorite places in the world because for just a few days, my world slows down and I can relax, in the company of the three people I love most in all the world. Hopefully we can get back out there for at least another night before the end of the summer. 

Also, I made a new friend! His name is Billy. (The picture is from a sunset swim down at Camp Cronin in Point Judith.) 

I’ll post more soon. 

Fish eggs and Flounder

First off, an apology to all my family for not posting these blogs more frequently. I guess not posting is good though, because it means I’m out and about and have less time to hang out in my room and make these posts. 

To be honest, I haven’t had a bad day since I moved here. Work is going great- Donald and I collected mummichogs (2-4 inch long fish that live along the entire Atlantic coast) and brought them back to the lab to get them to spawn. They didn’t like living in a tank at first, but now they’re more than happy (who wouldn’t be with a guaranteed supply of food and lack of predators). We went over to the E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency) and learned all about how they get them to breed in captivity. The E.P.A. uses them to assess water quality, especially in places like the Gulf of Mexico and highly contaminated sites like New Bedford Harbor (where companies dumped large quantities of PCBs during the better part of the 1900’s). We made spawning trays, which are a circular device that the lady fish rub their bellies up against to deposit eggs, and then the male swims over and fertilizes them. The first day we collected 17 eggs and the second day we collected 47, so I’m really hoping for some baby fish! You can see a picture of what the egg looks like under a microscope below. They’re only 0.078” across and relatively clear. 

In other news, I got to finally dive with Mom at Fort Wetherill in Jamestown. It was SO COOL to get to dive with her- I went into instructor mode and she was definitely getting better as the dive progressed. I even got to show her some baby winter flounder. I can’t wait to go again! 

More recently, I’ve been spending time with both roommates that are already moved in- Shannon and Natasha. Shannon is 19 and is a waitress at night at Catarina’s Italian Restaurant and a URI undergraduate. Natasha is 26 and works at Butler hospital and is starting in the pharmacy program at URI in the fall. Shannon just made us a strawberry rhubarb pie so I’m pretty excited about that- the house smells amazing! Natasha is still moving stuff in, though she does stay here sometimes. The other night I stayed up until 3:30 am talking to her! I love that my house is feeling more like a new home. I can’t wait to meet the other two that will be moving into the house in September!! I’m SO glad I opted to live in a house with other girls, I’d be lonely if they weren’t around all the time! 

I’m living an awesome life- studying the things I love, making new friends, feeling more and more like an adult. These past couple of weekends have been the true heart of summer- spending time on the boat for the fireworks the weekend after the fourth of July and then this past weekend was a fluke tournament that both of our boats competed in. I went on the big boat with Mom, Dad, Ronnie and Sharon. Unfortunately, our boat wasn’t able to produce the big one for the couple of hundred dollar prize. Josh went out on the 18’ boat with Derek, Frank and Kyle and caught more and bigger fish than the Marlintini. It’s pretty funny to watch Josh show up Dad! I love spending quality time with family and friends that might as well be family. 

Post from last week

Things have been going great! Partly the reason for the delay in this post! I finally feel settled in, comfortable at work, and continue to learn new things every day. 

Two weekends ago, my friend Alex Wood from UConn came out and we checked out a couple of state parks- including Fort Wetherill and Beavertail. Beavertail is by far the prettiest state park I’ve ever been to- it’s the southern tip of Jamestown island, so it’s like jagged rocks that everybody picnics on and you can watch huge shipping barges go by, take a free tour of the lighthouse, and spend the day soaking in some sun. I also took him over to the Point Judith lighthouse- in the future I’d love to fish off the beach there because it looks like it would be a productive spot. 

Last weekend, Danielle came down from Vermont. She lives up there with her boyfriend, and she came down to Connecticut to spend some time with her family and drove over to visit me as well. Saturday we went over to the Narragansett town beach after scoring some free parking (man I need to practice parallel parking!). Boogie boarding up to the beach on huge waves for hours was definitely one of the most fun things I’ve done out here- I can’t believe such an amazing beach is about a ten minute drive away! The waves were absolutely huge- there were surfers just a little ways down the beach and very attentive lifeguards. Overall it was awesome! We got cleaned up and headed over to Crazy Burger, which is within walking distance from the beach. Crazy Burger always has a wait, no matter the meal time, because the food there is absolutely amazing. We ordered the same thing (although Danielle got the gluten free options for hers) which was essentially just a cheeseburger. But let me tell you- this cheeseburger wasn’t like anything I’ve ever had before. So we got the Whassupy Burgers. The beef is mixed with horseradish, garlic, and worchestershire sauce so it’s super flavorful. Then, it’s topped with brie cheese, onion rings, (we had them add avocado), served on a delicious wheaty bun and with a side of wasabi-chipotle mayonnaise. I got it with sweet potato fries. SO GOOD! We tried some locally made ice cream on the way home and she taught me how to make greeting cards with a die cutter and all this cool stationary and stamping stuff that night. I love Danielle! 

This week I got to go tuna fishing for the first time with Dr. Bradley (my advisor), Peter (the financial backing for the tuna project and captain of the boat), and Taylor (a student I work with). We went out Tuesday at 4 am and trolled all day. It wasn’t until 4:30 pm that we hooked up. We caught a bluefin tuna (which is what we’re trying to get to spawn in the tank) and got him to the boat, into the tuna sling, and into the tank on the boat (which takes up most of the cockpit which increases the difficulty to fish), but then he died because he was just a bit too big and couldn’t swim properly around the circular tank. I was SO impressed by how well everything was executed- I jumped right in and was helping pull the fish in with the tuna sling and get the oxygen hooked up and everything. It’s so different fishing with barbless hooks with the intention of bringing fish back alive- everything is focused around the health of the fish. 

Seeing the process of having fish in the tank (when we had mahi mahi) and then seeing how they’re caught is truly incredible. I’m so happy to be a part of this project!