Joulters Bonefish Exploration

A major objective of this portion of the expedition was to explore the Joulter Islands for potential bonefish tagging locations. Access to the bonefish flats requires a 15 mile run across the Andros Pocket then working through the coral heads on the reef to reach the creek that leads to the flats. We picked a day when the wind was less than 10 knots so we could visually navigate up the shallow creek. We made the run, worked up the creek into a small side creek where our research had identified the most promising spots for tagging. Like any exploration, nothing is certain except the journey. We anchored the boat in the creek, waded ashore and explored a major portion of the central flats but found no bonefish. Tide, moon phase, temperature... we don't know why they were not there. But soon as the winds die down we will try again and explore other portions. The entire Joulter Island chain covers about 25 square miles. Lot of flats to cover and a lot of potential for our flats research program.

We are leaving today for Highborne Cay in the Exuma Island chain. From where we are now in Chub Cay it is 75 miles away and our route takes us through Nassau where we will refuel and resupply our food stocks. We will also pick up fisheries biologist Don Hammond and also John McMurray from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation program, who will be doing an article on our dolphin tagging work. The weather looks good for tagging next week. With 27 tagged fish so far, we are encouraged that we can place additional tags on dolphin plus place a pop-up satellite tag on a dolphin if we can catch one larger than 25 lbs. I will report more tomorrow night after we get our first crack at tagging in Exuma Sound.

24 dolphin tagged, 1 wahoo tagged and 4th place

We completed the first week of our 2008 tagging season with some great results. We tagged 24 dolphin this week plus one small wahoo and finally placed 4th in the Chub Cay Billfish Tournament. It was a busy week. A big thanks goes out to the entire tournament crew - Anglers Joe Mac, Capt Ed, Billy G plus Captain Steve at the helm and awesome mate Joe "FUBAR" Kelly. We have major tagging trips every month in 2008. With a goal of 500 tagged dolphin in 2008, we will rely on volunteer crew to help. We look forward to expanding our tagging team to include additional boats and crews.

We collected 3 full days of tournament fishing via the Maxsea software that will be added to our total fishing effort and catch database. In 2007 the Makara and Little Mak flats boat traveled 4779 miles according to our GPS logs. Our goal is to continue to collect and analyze cutting edge fishing and catch data from recreational fishing. Coupled with our various tagging programs, we believe we can contribute to the scientific database to help drive solid conservation decision making.

Tomorrow we have a new crew arriving to Chub Cay - Steve Trafton- ED of the Henry's Fork Foundation, Ryan Davey who is leading our Patagonia effort plus Brandon White from the Lateral Line Foundation. Our principle goal this week is planning two major 2008 projects plus evaluate the bonefish tag program for the Berry Islands. Should be an interesting week for MVF.

1 Blue Marlin, 1 White Marlin, First Place!

Today was the first day of the Chub Cay Billfish Tournament. 15 boats fishing and 5 of the boats caught fish. The Makara was top boat with two catches today - one blue and one white marlin. Weather was wicked - 15 knots in the morning which built up to 25 knots in the afternoon. Seas were 5-7 with plenty of 8-9 footers mixed in. Tomorrow is day two of the three day tournament so lot of fishing left.

We did track the entire tournament fleet today with the Maxsea software. Will post those results once we analyze the data. Finally we did tag one dolphin today. More tomorrow. Thanks for visiting us.

0 blue marlin, 15 dolphin tagged day 1

We had our first full day of fishing today with the full fishing team aboard. Winds were blowing 15-20 kts from the NE and seas were 3-5 feet. We started out in the Pocket and worked our way South towards Morgans Bluff on Andros Island. A school of dolphin came through the spread just before lunch and we tagged 16 fish. Adding to the two fished tagged off Jupiter, FL earlier in January that gives us a total of 18 dolphin tagged in 2008.


We will be fishing the Chub Cay all release billfish tournament for the next three days. Winds are suppose to blow 20 kts plus tomorrow. Should be an interesting day. Stay tuned for more posts.

For those who do not know where we are, here is a map of the part of the Bahamas where we are working this week. Just google up Chub Cay.

2008 Tagging Expedition begins...

Greetings to everyone out there. We are on our way for a 3 week tagging expedition in the Bahamas. We are currently at Chub Cay in the Berry Islands. We will be here for two weeks with the first week centered on billfish tagging and tracking using the recently installed Maxsea software on the Makara. The software enables us to track up to 100 sportfishers during a tournament to record both fishing effort and catch data. The Makara is only the 3rd boat in the US to have the tracking software installed. We will publish some early results once we complete the first leg of the tournament. We are bringing an extra research vessel this trip - a new 33 Contender. Powered by triple Yamaha 250s, the boat has 60 mph speed and a range of 400 miles. The boat named the "Snafu" will be used primarily for dolphin tagging and access to remote bonefish flats.


Our second week of the trip will be for bonefish tagging. This is a new project that we did some preliminary work in 2007. We are planning to ramp it up in 2008 and do extensive tagging throughout the Bahamas. More on that on a later post.

Finally our last week of the trip is to tag dolphin. Fisheries biologist Don Hammond will be on board and is bringing some of the new half size pop-up satellite tags for deployment. You will remember we did tag a 58" dolphin during our trip to Isla Mujeres last June. Unfortunately the dolphin was eaten by a large predator (unknown to us) and only survived a few hours after the tagging occurred. We are excited to be working with Don in 2008.

We did fish today in the "Pocket" which is just North of Andros Island. Cold winds from the North shut down the bite. The rest of the crew arrived today so we have a full lineup on board now. We will need it for blue marlin fishing. We will be out early tomorrow morning so look for a report tomorrow evening. Best to all.