Maple Leaf Giants

With Fall colors blooming and Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton, Canada the TAG team continued efforts to place Pop Up satellite (PAT)  tags in Canadian bluefin tuna in the waters off Port Hood Nova Scotia.

Led by vessels from Gulf of Nova Scotia and PEI fleets the team plied the waters that ranged from calm to high seas for 3 and one half days of fishing.

The Neptuna, Captained by Ross Kues, provided a steady
stream of bluefin along with the other boats.

Eleven tags were deployed on 9 bluefin tuna. Some were nice large fish similar to what the team had tagged in September.

Lip hook master Robbie Schallert comes
face to face with a giant bluefin.

When a tuna is brought on deck, its eyes are covered
and fresh sea water is pumped over its gills to keep it healthy and calm.

Others were surprisingly small- similar to the large class of 8 year old fish that TAG scientists placed 52 archivals in earlier in the year in the waters off North Carolina.  Pop up satellite tags and acoustic tags were deployed and some fish carried a new mini-PAT tag from Wildlife Computers.  Tags will pop up after 210-300 days at sea revealing the mysteries of giant bluefin.

Another giant is measured as it comes on board.