Catalina Above and Below
I first heard the rumors circulating about two weeks before the trip even began. "There is no way I'm going on the Catalina trip, last year it was so rough everyone was totally sick," one person cried. "It was like being in hell, only worse because it was cold," whined another. Programs director Larry Fukuhara tried to calm their fears. "Last trip was the roughest trip we EVER had, usually the weather is fine and the trip across the channel is nice." Still he had a hard time convincing them, and forgetting the sight of sea sick passengers clutching the sides of garbage cans was a hard thing to shake. Friday night as we boarded the ship, murmurs of "six to eight foot swells tonight" could be heard and I saw several passengers fidget uncertainly as they eyed the dark clouds above.
At 11:00 pm, the engines in the 93 foot sportfisher "First String" roared to life and the 40 or so passengers gathered around the bait tank in the stern while Larry told them our planned schedule. As he went on the crowd began to smile and relax and excitement filled the air. Instead of moans I heard ecstatic comments about baiting for sharks and wonders of what hagfish really looked like.
So how was the trip? For those of you who missed it, all I have to say is that it was the BEST Above and Below trip that I have EVER been on. The trip across the channel was a bit bumpy but most of the passengers slept soundly and no one was severely seasick. At 1:00 am, Mike Schaadt and his team of divers went blue water collecting and caught many types of interesting plankton. We set the fish and hagfish traps and anchored in the calm waters around Catalina Island.
At 4:00 am Larry woke me from my sound slumber to start collecting fish for the passengers to see. I refer to it as "using linear collection devices to catch benthic teleosts". Sounds more technical than to say we went fishing. What did we catch? Lots of calico bass, whitefish, scorpion fish and some sheephead. We also caught one bat ray and a HUGE 25 lb hornshark (once again I outfished Larry and caught the biggest fish on the boat, gosh it's getting to become a habit). We carefully set these fish in two large wading pools for the passengers to see and experience.
And those weren't the only fish caught. The fish traps yielded lobster, rockfish, and more calico bass. Later everyone participated in pulling up the hagfish traps. Each trap swarmed with slimy hagfish. The passengers were delighted to see these primitive deepwater jawless fish and made faces as they felt the slime that the hagfish exuded. If you have never felt hagfish slime, it is the weirdest stuff in the world, slimly, stinky and stringy like there are spider webs inside it.
The sun shone brightly and at 9:00 am the dive team led by Jeff Landesman entered the water by Eagles Reef. We were fortunate to have great underwater visibility (about 40 feet or more) and had a splendid time in the crystal blue water. I can only describe it as fantastic, probably one of the best dives I have ever experienced. Among us swam schools of fish of every color and size. Kelp fronds beckoned us as they waved gently to and fro. The reef was teeming with life in different forms and colors. We dove down to over 80 feet and collected seastars, urchins, kelp, cucumbers, mussels, baby sheephead fish, scallops, and even a large octopus. The passengers gathered around the wading pools as Jeff pointed out the different critters and discussed their interesting habits.
At 10:00 we pulled up to the docks at Catalina and spent some time at USC's Wrigley Environmental Science Center. There we wandered about the hypobaric chamber and toured the classrooms. The grand finale was when one of their staff members took us down to the rocks and began to hand feed the moray eels. If I had not been there I would not have believed what I saw. The eels clamored over the rocks and lurched OUT of the water to get at the squid pieces. Large kelp bass jumped out of the water to get at the food like trained whales at on oceanarium. It was absolutely remarkable.
And yet there was still more to experience. At 1:00 Jeff radioed our chase boat (the Aquarium's brand new boat "C Star") and they had good news. They spotted at least one blue shark and were attempting to keep a good chum slick going until we got there. We steered towards their coordinates, and on the way over spotted a pod of Common dolphins which welcomed us by bowriding and jumping out of the water.
Eventually we met up with the C Star and began to chum cut up pieces of mackerel. 10 minutes passed by, then 15 and Jeff began to get nervous. No sign of a shark. When I asked him if he needed any help, he said to give the supersecret shark call. So I summoned up all of my courage and uttered the sacred shark call "here fishy fishy fishy!" It worked like a magic charm and soon a 3 foot long blue shark showed up in the chum slick. Then another 5 foot blue shark came in and proceeded to amaze us by lurching out of the water for the pieces of fish that we offered it. The passengers cheered with excitement. Could it possibly get any better? You bet! Mike and Jeff wished for a mako shark, and low and behold Larry shouted out "Mako!" We all pushed for a spot at the rail and marveled at the 5-6 foot mako shark that cruised around our boat. Usually these sharks tend to be shy and hang far out in the chum slick away from the boat, but this one stayed within sight and swam up and down the rail. We all laughed as both the mako and blue sharks attempted to chase some of the Fumar birds that were swimming on top of the water. One shark would have been great, two sharks even better, but having three sharks including a mako was phenomenal. We watched spellbound for about two hours scarcely aware of the time. Jeff successfully tagged the largest blue shark, and then with the roar of the engines, we sadly said good-bye and proceeded home. It was a fantastic finale to a great trip, and I feel sorry for those of you who could not or would not attend. But don't cry just yet! Mike Schaadt and Bill Brush were nice enough to video tape the whole adventure for you to experience later, and we were lucky enough to have the film crew from the cable program "Out and About" on board, so keep your eyes peeled for the showtimes.
We would especially like to thank the crew of the First String, exhibits, aquarists, programs, outreach, sea search, and the administration staff for making this trip possible. Most of the passengers had never seen any of the animals that visited us or experienced any of the adventures that we all did that day. Personally I'm looking forward to next years Catalina Above and Below and I hope to see you there!