Tracks and Tags

I have inserted the Google Earth image of some of our tracks and tags during the last expedition.   While we did troll the edge and caught some fish, the majority were found under roaming frigate birds.   Whenever we saw a frigate low on the water we found fish - both dolphin and yellowfin.  The wind was blowing from the South for the first part of the trip and the fish were packed in along the North edge of the bank.  After 3 days of solid 15-20 knot North winds, we found the fish had moved further South along the edge North of Highborne Cay. Our gut feel before we left the dock was all the dolphin would have been pushed South by the high North winds but in fact the fish stayed in the area plus we saw schools of flying fish indicating the dolphin's favorite food was still in the area.  

The point of this post is something I have learned watching the TOPP program in the Pacific (www.topp.org) that is simply put that pelagic fish, birds and marine mammals are congregate around food.  Forget the winds and weather... find the food and the fish will be close by.  And that is something to remember as we continue our pelagic research here at MVF.