There's good news and bad. The bad news is that we only whacked
18 lionfish the entire trip. The good news is that we whacked every lionfish we
saw. They just weren't there. So, we went to Tortugas Bank to whack some more,
because we needed 150 lionfish to fill the freezer. We only saw 2. Whackedum,
but nowhere near the 150 we expected.
We set out Friday evening with 12 scientists, 5 crew, and a lionfish shootin'
ringer, Alecia Adamson from REEF. Laddie Akins was in the Bahamas, so we
couldn't invite him, and we sat staring at Alicia last week at Our World
Underwater in Chicago, so I figured we'd take her along to show us how it's
done. We steamed out overnight to Rileys and arrived at daybreak. Seas were
flat, current was ripping, and visibility was about 30 feet. We put the lionfish
team in first, and sat back expecting they'd limit out. No such luck, with 6
fish recovered. We moved over to the edge of the hump to set up some scientific
instruments, and didn't see any lionfish. Current ran 2-2 1/2 knots the entire
day, making drops a crapshoot. The divers were mostly able to find their sites,
and diving continued throughout the day. Water temps were 68 on the bottom, and
70 at the surface. Not exactly the warm waters we were hoping for.
Sunday was supposed to be really lousy weather. We woke up to smooth seas and
slack current. When we arrived at Riley's, however, we found the Gulf Stream.
Vis cleared up to a hundred feet (on the surface anyway), and temps were in the
70's. There is a reason it is the gulf stream, however. Current was running 3
1/2-4 knots against a 15 knot wind. We made 4 dive sites, picking up the gear we
had set down the day before, and whacking a few more lionfish. By 2 in the
afternoon, the seas were running 6 or so feet, and we decided to call it a day.
Not wanting to pound back to Key West in those seas, I opted to head to Tortugas
Bank to see what the lionfish population was there. 2 miles north of Rileys, the
gulf stream disappeared, the seas laid down, and we were in flat calm murky
water again. We got to Tortugas Bank and threw in 2 lionfish teams. They made
hour-long dives and encountered only one lionfish on each dive. Vis on Tortugas
bank was 60 feet, current was mild at best, but the water was so cold, 65 and 64
were reported on the bottom.
After a couple of lionfish transects, we decided to head for the barn, and
arrived at the dock at 3 AM. OH, we saw aggregations of big fish on the sounder,
too. Grouper, maybe? |
Capt Frank
M/V Spree
Stock Island, FL |
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