June 14-19,
2014
A week ago
today, Gabriel, Danielle, and I arrived home from a successful trip to Oregon
Inlet. For those of you that don’t know, Oregon Inlet Fishing Center is the
best spot to catch fish on the east coast. In addition to loads of inshore
fish, the charters that head out from Oregon Inlet catch huge numbers of
offshore fish, 40 miles southeast and closer. The proximity of the continental
shelf to the fishing pier makes this a highly desirable, lucrative spot to run
a charter boat.
The three of
us headed south because for a few months when spring turns into summer, Oregon
Inlet sees limits of yellowfin tuna every single day. A “limit” of yellowfin
means 3 fish per angler, or a total of 18 per boat. About 28 boats go out every
day depending on the weather and they rarely return to the dock without their limit,
so that is a total of 504 yellowfin tuna per day if every boat heads offshore.
We headed
down around dinnertime on Saturday, June 14 to Nags Head, North Carolina. It is
only about a 12 hour drive, but given tolls, getting lost in Delaware, and
making sure everyone was caffeinated through the night, we were able to check
into the hotel around 10:30 on Sunday morning. I called up Fred, our contact in
the Fish Cleaning House, as soon as we set our stuff down in the hotel and I
got a “ya’ll better get down here or you’re gonna be late! They’re bringin’ in
tons of yellowfin already!” Ah, the thick, welcoming, and super-friendly
southern accent beckoning us to the dock. It turns out, some of the boats catch
their limit within two hours of fishing and head back to the dock early. After
nearly zero sleep, the three of us headed down to Oregon Inlet to see what the
fuss is all about.
We pull in,
meet Fred, and realize how amazing the setup is down there. Oregon Inlet works
like a well oiled machine. The captains put paying customers on the fish, the
mates help the anglers catch, and very little blood hits the cockpit. Once they
arrive back at the dock, pictures of nearly every fish are taken, and a pickup
truck moves fish in Rubbermaid barrels from the dock to the Fish Cleaning
House. The Fish Cleaning House is where 6-8 strong men weigh and fillet fish
for customers. It may sound easy but when you think about the sheer numbers-
(i.e. 4 boats alone bringing in 2000+ lbs of tuna fillets) it is an immense
task. The guys are set up very well, with an air conditioned room with
stainless steel counters and hoses everywhere. Next to the room where they cut
the fish is a huge refrigerated room where they store fish that need to be cut
up and fish racks, so there is zero fish stench near the docks or building.
They let us
set up on the back side of the Fish Cleaning House on a deck that is about 12’
by 15’ where we set up a folding table, laid down measuring tape for straight
fork length, and had coolers full of ice ready to accept bagged gonads. We were
able to weigh, get curved fork length, and remove gonads from some whole fish,
but we mainly had access to racks of fish. We only used racks if the spine was
100% intact to get a straight fork length, but we were unable to weigh these
fish. Fortunately, when the fish cutters remove the loins, the gut area is left
alone and the gonads are unaltered. The first day, on zero sleep, we were able
to get about 105 gonad samples. Back at the hotel, we weighed the gonads, gave
them a gross maturation stage (i.e. how developed does it look), and cut small
slivers to store in neutral buffered formalin for later histological analysis
under the microscope. Our initial plan was to obtain 200 samples over the
course of the trip, but I brought enough supplies to get 400 gonad samples.
For the
second day, we had arranged with Fred for him to call us and let us know when
the first boats came back. Because there were a lot of private boats heading
out, Fred thought it would take the charter boats slightly longer to catch
their limit. The next morning we woke up, had sweet potato biscuits free at the
hotel for breakfast, and headed to mini golf at Mutiny Bay. Even though it was
fun and Gabe definitely won, it was super hot in the sun and we were ready to
get back to sampling. On the second sampling day, we were able to get 101
samples. That night, we went to Mulligan’s Raw Bar and enjoyed some local
seafood and some guy with a guitar out on the deck at night. If you’re curious
what he sounded like, this was the guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nhs2ZWHHVM
On the third
sampling day, we stopped by Bodie Island lighthouse for a few pictures and then
drove a bit further south. We headed down to check out Cape Hatteras lighthouse
before heading back to Oregon Inlet for the afternoon. It was a priority for
the sampling crew and we were only about 45 minutes away. The three of us
walked up all 268 steps of the tallest brick lighthouse in the world. It was
great! It also happened to be 15 years to the day (June 17) that the lighthouse
began being moved from its original location to where it sits now, due to
concerns about erosion.
The third
sampling day we were worried that we might not get enough samples for the rest
of the trip, due to wind offshore. We made a group decision to get as many
samples as we possibly could that day, because we were not sure if we could get
any more samples until Friday. That third day, we managed to collect 194 tuna
samples!!
After getting
almost 400 samples in 3 days (some samples were unusable), we really needed a
break. We worked late into the night to weigh and cut up all the samples on
Tuesday night, stopping only to scarf down pizza that we had delivered to the hotel.
We celebrated the success of getting all of the samples that we possibly could that
night by jumping into the ocean around 3:00 in the morning.
Wednesday,
Danielle and I were not feeling so great, so we had an easy morning organizing
samples, typing up data, cleaning up the mess from sampling, and going for a
swim in the beautiful ocean. We were lucky enough to find a cheaper hotel (buy
3 nights get one free special!) that just happened to be on the water. We
decided to swing by the aquarium on Roanoke Island to check out the sea otters,
sand tiger sharks, puffer fish, and all white alligator. It was awesome! That
night we ate at the Sugar Shack and tried some local fish, shrimp, fried green
tomatoes, and even soft shell crab! The seafood down in North Carolina is
unparalleled. We finished packing that night and hit the road early on Thursday
morning.
All in all a
great success! We got more samples than we intended, filled every sample tube
we brought with us, learned a ton about yellowfin gonads, and even managed to
see a few sights along the way.
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