Satellite Tagging Stuart: Finally got a Big Girl

[tunaman81]

Decided to give it a shot on Saturday 11/17/07. Tim called me and said that his friend marine biologist/cameraman Rick Rosenthal was in town and hoping to get some footage of swordfish and of a satellite tag deployment for an upcoming special on the BBC/Nature/PBS called "Superfish." It is a documentary about billfish, and he wanted to get some swordfish footage.
(Rick filmed billfish and other sequences for the Discovery specials Blue Planet and Planet Earth).

We leave dock at about 3:30pm and set out for the swordfishing grounds. We got to the spot and set out the buoys and set up the camera gear (which included a huge spotlight on the water). Almost immediately (~5:30pm), we see one of the buoys go racing off. It seemed like a nice fish, so we decided to let her calm down a bit and went off to check the other buoys.
We proceeded to catch a small fish that wasn't big enough for a satellite tag, so we sent the little guy on his was with a spaghetti tag.

We pull up to another buoy with a fish on it, and we get the fish boatside quickly. With the cameras running, the fish did a few backflips right in the spotlight next to the boat (guess he decided to ham it up). He was about 50" so we decided to put an archival satellite tag in him (not enough battery power to pop off, but still records info that we will get back if it is caught again). Rick got footage of us tagging the fish, and then he jumped in the water and filmed the release.

At this point, it had been a while since the first big fish had been hooked, so we returned to that buoy. Dennis started handlining the fish and it was apparent immediately that this was a big one. The fish kept running and at one point we threw out a styrofoam buoy on the line to tire her out, but she dragged it so deep it got crushed and wrinkled.

After over an hour of fighting the fish by handline, Dennis had her close enough for us to get a peek (btw Dennis did an excellent job fighting her). At first, the fish looked to be enormous, but then we realized that there was a 400lb freeswimmer with our fish!!! The freeswimmer stuck around for a minute or two cruising along the transom. Kind of odd to have two females together.

We got her boatside and Tim grabbed her bill so we could get the snooter on. She then lifted Tim off the deck with her bill. After about 30 tense seconds, we got the snooter on. I then put a satellite tag in her. We manouvered her to the stardboard side to measure her and get a good look. She was over 98" lower jaw fork length, and was fat. Using a girth estimate and the equation, we estimated her to be about 480lbs. Rick got some great footage of the tagging, and then hopped in the water and got footage of her swimming away strongly.

We caught a few more fish, but did not deploy any more tags (last one is being saved for a daytime fish). One of the fish that we released had a huge slash out of its side from another sword. However, it was healing and obviously a few days old so we let him go.

Called it a night at about 1am.

A huge thanks again to Tim, Dennis, Eric Orbeson, and Rick Rosenthal. Everything went smoothly and the documentary should turn out great...so keep an eye out for it. As far was we know, this is the largest swordfish ever satellite tagged. Here are a few pics of the beast and one pic of the smaller swordfish that was slashed up.





slashed swordfish

[Relentless33]

Sweet.

If you don't mind me asking, what's the deal with putting a PSAT tag in a fish if you know full well that you won't be getting it back unless it happens to be caught by another fisherman?

Are the batteries not changable?

[Beerman]

Nice work

[Cutler]

great report...well done!

[Tunachaser]

Wow

[tunaman81]

Originally Posted by Relentless33

Sweet.

If you don't mind me asking, what's the deal with putting a PSAT tag in a fish if you know full well that you won't be getting it back unless it happens to be caught by another fisherman?

Are the batteries not changable?

Unfortunately the batteries are not replaceable.

[catching]

That is great Justin, thanks Tim a crew for getting the guys out there to tag these fish Please keep us up to date on when the show will air, that should be a sick video watching that big girl swim away in the black abyss

[Uncle Buck]

Excellent, Justin! Nice to meet you at the last SSC gathering. Good luck putting a tag in a daytime giant soon.

[Thumper235]

Nice work guys!! Great pics.

How long is the tag set to be in the fish before it pops up?

[quack quack]

Great job guys.

[Capt'n Shane]

Congratulations on a successfull effort.

[tunaman81]

Originally Posted by Thumper235

Nice work guys!! Great pics.

How long is the tag set to be in the fish before it pops up?

It is set to pop up in 120 days.

[Broadbill-Pro]

Good job Justin! That tear appears to be from a fresh foul hook, very common. It will heal.

Hats off to you guys for releasing a good days pay!

[Colonel Klink]

That was my thought too at first, Vinnie. That picture really also makes it look like a hook tear. What made me change my mind after looking at it a little closer was that the slash was about 3 1/2 to 4 " deep, far deeper than any hook tear I ever witnessed. Wouldn't have been from me, I recall taking a circle hook out of the jaw of that fish. Anyhow, the wound looked to be a few days to a week old, as it was starting to get slimed over, and most of the loose skin had fallen off. I'm not ruling out hook tear, however.
It's also interesting to note that the smallest of the fish that I took to the market yesterday had an unmistakable, fresh swordfish poke(as in while it was hooked) that completely went through the body from the bottom to the top of the plug at an angle that traversed about a 15". No question on that one. Cost me about $25. Why can't these fish just get along.
More comments later, I'm out the door to start a long day.

[Broadbill-Pro]

Tim,

Hard to tell, but if you look aft of the wound to the markings on the skin, it's clear that the fish was wrapped up in the leader and the mono has remove the color in a very straight distinct line and then shaved the skin towards the tail. You can even see where the mono jumped over the anal fin. All that pink area was caused by a mono burn, unless you guys wrapped her up during the battle?

I have seen swords with hook tears in the gut that allowed the intestines to become exposed and hang on the outside of the fish, the skin healed around the intestines leaving them exposed and the fish lived to eat one more day anyway

Broad-bill CSI

[Colonel Klink]

Fish was no question wrapped up in my leader. Like I stated before circle hook was firmly in jaw. That was a previous injury, hook tear or no. I am seeing the same thing in the pic you are, And I agree it looks very much like a hook tear. No need to speculate, the fish swam away to fight another day. I have seen hundreds of hook tears, and a closer look made me think this may have been something different. Now I wish I would have kept my mouth shut. I knew as soon as I saw that pic, someone( with as much experience as you or me) would make a comment about it being a hook tear. Enough said.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Fantastic. Was nice to meet you the other night Justin. Congrats on the succesful deployments. Much good fishing karma on the way to the crew.

[Broadbill-Pro]

Tim,

No need to keep your mouth shut, this discussion is interesting and meaningless at the same time. I never used circle hooks swordfishing and I doubt a circle hook could make that wound. It is no way enough to kill the fish and I am looking forward to the info the tag provides.

In all the years I have probably seen a dozen wounds that I could say were related to sword vs sword battles. Again, good job!

[Mike]

Reel Nice.

[ProfessorO]

You guys are awesome!!

I also heard more good news for the sword PSAT research in the FL
Straits that will be posted by the appropiate people soon.

Here is my speculation at the moment. I don't think we will see
any significant differences between the movements of day and
night tagged fish. We may see a difference in movement as a
function of weight that will probably be more related to the
sex of the fish. It seems that the females migrate more than
males. cheers, arthur