rent fish found in the area, they can use stable isotope analysis for carbon and nitrogen and see where the fish fit in the food web.
Fishing takes lots of patience. Sitting there quietly, waiting, dropping the bait down to the bottom, reeling it up a bit, waiting, feeling a nibble, ready to pull the tip of my rod up…then nothing. More waiting. But always cautiously alert. Then a tug, and this time a bite. I quickly began to reel the fish in at the other end. It was a yellow-eyed rockfish, affectionately called for their big yellow eyes and pinky orange skin.
At the end of the day we caught 6 yellow-eyed rockfish, a small Spanish mackerel and a rockhind, which was brown with strawberry pink spots. We also caught a Nassau grouper – a brown and olive striped fish. As Joey was reeling it in, a huge cubera snapper grabbed it and took a big chunk out of its back! We watched the whole attack from above.
When we got back to the dock, we took some measurements and muscle samples. The rest got cooked up for dinner.