Peggy Deichstetter, September 3, 2010

My biorhythm clock has been reset; I didn’t wake up until my alarm rang at 11:00pmWhat an exciting start to the shift. The day shift caught nothing all day. Within a few minutes of our arrival the fish just kept coming. There were so many that the day shift stayed on to help us measure, weigh, and tag the sharks before we returned them to the sea.. Besides the sharks we also caught a large red snapper.

Next Cassidy and I helped out with the bongos. These are twin plankton tows that stay at a certain angle based on controlling the angle of the line. The depth is determined by the amount of line that is let out. The first time we got the baskets a little too deep in the water. So we brought up two containers of mud. We rinsed out all the mud and tried again. This time we were successful. Cassidy and I rinsed the baskets into sieves and washed down the plankton before putting it in specimen jarsWe then proceeded to bait one hundred more hooks and once again began out quest for sharks. After dropping the line and waiting an hour we were ready to pull in more sharks. I .worked the computer for this catch The computer logs in the exact location of each fish caught We caught NO sharks this time. We did catch three huge Groupers.I intended to watch the sun rise but it was behind a cloud bank. We had an hour before our next station, so we had breakfast. I’d like to give a big thanks to our cooks. You can have pretty much what you want for breakfast made to order

We arrive at the next station at 8:00am. It is another plankton tow, but this time we caught a moon jelly. It takes up about an hour then on to our next station, sharks! Unfortunately, its going to take us two hours to get there. I don’t think our shift will have the opportunity to land the sharks.