Dang it was BIG
Guess what I did?
Late Thursday night I went on a small little clipper (boat) to go tag sharks. "Yeah!" I was thinken "Cool man, I get to work with some sharks- they won't be that big, probably like the little leopard sharks I’ve seen in labs." Hunny boy was I thinken wrong.
I got on this small boat where I met the researcher woman I'd be working for, Cyndi. Just by the looks of her I should have been tipped off; if you look up the definition of rugged in the dictionary you'd get her. In fisherman water proof dark green pull-up pants, yellow jacket and black beanie she thrust her hardened hand out and I looked up into dark sea green eyes. A scar ran across her nose and the corner of her mouth was turned up in a conspiratorial smile.
We were accompanied by two other student volunteers like myself and a muskrat looking man that drove the boat and piloted the GPS systems and told us when we were over our spots to let our lines out. Cyndi took out these rather large slight more bent J hooks and proceeded to spear sections of salmon on the ends. She placed two hunks per line, the deeper one used to catch and the other to put more sent in the water. I'd lean over the edge waiting for Greg, the navigator, to nod and I'd drop the line, Cyndi would hold onto the line until it all went down and I dropped over a large Bowie. We'd then wait for 45min and go pull in our lines. We did this about two times through the night.
During the wait I asked lots of questions about her work and the surgery she'd be doing on the sharks. She showed me all her tools- gold handled suture holders and scalpels *She’s Ballen*- and the tag she'd be putting inside the shark. She is doing research on the Prickly Shark, a shark which hardly anything is known. She noticed that there was more activity during the night and we were her second group to take a night venture. She explained to us that our job was to get the shark in a stretcher that we'd hold over the edge, and keep the shark in it until she cut about an inch long cut along the side/underbelly of the shark, place the tag in side, suture him/her up, take a blood sample, measure length, and put an external tag on to measure water temp and depth. She has monitors set up throughout the bay that can pick up the information off her shark tags.
We set out to pick up our lines, five in all. #1 did not have anything. #2 had one, but came off as the line as it was being pulled in. #3 had one, after that things were going fast. I shoved all the line to the other side and came up on Cyndi's left to transfer the shark fro the line to a rope. That's when I saw her. She was HUGE! Her head came up as I reached down to transfer the line. Her head alone was bigger than my upper body. Cyndi took the line as the other volunteers place the stretcher in the water. I opened the side door and leaned over the edge ushering the shark in between the stretcher poles. The first time we missed and Cyndi had to struggle to pull her back and line her back up. But at last she was in. I leaned over her and pulled the sides of the stretcher together. A huge tail rose up out of the water and SMACK! I got slapped in the face. WOW! I was ecstatic! I just got whack in the face by a giant shark! I ran my hand over her body. Prickly Sharks are justly named for their skin is very abrasive and they have this kind of green slime on them.
I switched places with Cyndi so she could proceed into the surgery and manned the light so she could see and I could monitor the health of the shark. That's when I really got an eye full. Our shark was about 9 ft long! She was a reddish brown color with medium brown eyes, and her gills looked like soft leaves flowing in a current.
The shark was amazingly calm as Cyndi cut into her and placed the tag just inside her body cavity. She got two sutures on her, when I noticed the hook had come off. The shark was lose! Just as soon as we started to realize this, our prickly shark started to buck, her head rising up to the boat's railing. She slid out of the stretcher and back into her adaptive environment. Luckily she was tagged and sutured enough, even though the extra suture wire was not cut Cyndi says she will be fine.
How amazing! What a beautiful creature. That night we caught a small baby one too, but let it go. It was so cute!
I can't wait to do it again!
I got back home around midnight.
Late Thursday night I went on a small little clipper (boat) to go tag sharks. "Yeah!" I was thinken "Cool man, I get to work with some sharks- they won't be that big, probably like the little leopard sharks I’ve seen in labs." Hunny boy was I thinken wrong.
I got on this small boat where I met the researcher woman I'd be working for, Cyndi. Just by the looks of her I should have been tipped off; if you look up the definition of rugged in the dictionary you'd get her. In fisherman water proof dark green pull-up pants, yellow jacket and black beanie she thrust her hardened hand out and I looked up into dark sea green eyes. A scar ran across her nose and the corner of her mouth was turned up in a conspiratorial smile.
We were accompanied by two other student volunteers like myself and a muskrat looking man that drove the boat and piloted the GPS systems and told us when we were over our spots to let our lines out. Cyndi took out these rather large slight more bent J hooks and proceeded to spear sections of salmon on the ends. She placed two hunks per line, the deeper one used to catch and the other to put more sent in the water. I'd lean over the edge waiting for Greg, the navigator, to nod and I'd drop the line, Cyndi would hold onto the line until it all went down and I dropped over a large Bowie. We'd then wait for 45min and go pull in our lines. We did this about two times through the night.
During the wait I asked lots of questions about her work and the surgery she'd be doing on the sharks. She showed me all her tools- gold handled suture holders and scalpels *She’s Ballen*- and the tag she'd be putting inside the shark. She is doing research on the Prickly Shark, a shark which hardly anything is known. She noticed that there was more activity during the night and we were her second group to take a night venture. She explained to us that our job was to get the shark in a stretcher that we'd hold over the edge, and keep the shark in it until she cut about an inch long cut along the side/underbelly of the shark, place the tag in side, suture him/her up, take a blood sample, measure length, and put an external tag on to measure water temp and depth. She has monitors set up throughout the bay that can pick up the information off her shark tags.
We set out to pick up our lines, five in all. #1 did not have anything. #2 had one, but came off as the line as it was being pulled in. #3 had one, after that things were going fast. I shoved all the line to the other side and came up on Cyndi's left to transfer the shark fro the line to a rope. That's when I saw her. She was HUGE! Her head came up as I reached down to transfer the line. Her head alone was bigger than my upper body. Cyndi took the line as the other volunteers place the stretcher in the water. I opened the side door and leaned over the edge ushering the shark in between the stretcher poles. The first time we missed and Cyndi had to struggle to pull her back and line her back up. But at last she was in. I leaned over her and pulled the sides of the stretcher together. A huge tail rose up out of the water and SMACK! I got slapped in the face. WOW! I was ecstatic! I just got whack in the face by a giant shark! I ran my hand over her body. Prickly Sharks are justly named for their skin is very abrasive and they have this kind of green slime on them.
I switched places with Cyndi so she could proceed into the surgery and manned the light so she could see and I could monitor the health of the shark. That's when I really got an eye full. Our shark was about 9 ft long! She was a reddish brown color with medium brown eyes, and her gills looked like soft leaves flowing in a current.
The shark was amazingly calm as Cyndi cut into her and placed the tag just inside her body cavity. She got two sutures on her, when I noticed the hook had come off. The shark was lose! Just as soon as we started to realize this, our prickly shark started to buck, her head rising up to the boat's railing. She slid out of the stretcher and back into her adaptive environment. Luckily she was tagged and sutured enough, even though the extra suture wire was not cut Cyndi says she will be fine.
How amazing! What a beautiful creature. That night we caught a small baby one too, but let it go. It was so cute!
I can't wait to do it again!
I got back home around midnight.