TAG Team Gets on the Board

January 13, 2007

Today could not have been more beautiful. Aboard the Leslie Anne with a veteran crew led by Captain Gary Stuve with owner Richard Worley aboard and guests Randy Repass and Richard Tilghman. The TAG Team, with veterans Dr. Barbara Block and Chuck Farwell of Stanford University and Monterey Bay Aquarium, caught the big fish of the day, on the edge of Cape Lookout Shoals near the shad boat buoy. The fish quietly took the bait and thought it would sneak away but the line came tight and the fish began to pull off the line. Richard Tilghman moved into the chair and persuasively pulled the fish toward the boat. After a 30' fight, Doug Roberts wired the fish to the boat and Chuck Farwell got the liphook in place in no time flat. To the delight of the entire team, Chuck got the fish in place and yelled "Pull". With four team members tugging on the line, the fish slid into place on the padded vinyl mat. There, glimmering in the summer like sun- was the bluefin, all 90", over 480 lbs. The team surgically inserted an archival tag, tied a double suture, and placed a pop up satellite tag on the same fish. After sampling for DNA, it took 5 TAG team members to turn the fish around and send the tuna out the door. In the clear warm water, with sargassum floating by- the bluefin swam away quickly. Everyone was enthused by nature's reward as the first fish of 2007 swam hard and fast away.