Tuna Fishing- Shearwaters and Marine Life. 6/16/24

     I got to spend Father’s Day tuna fishing on my friend’s boat.  I like tuna trips because they combine two of my favorite activities, fishing and pelagic birding.  Usually, to get these sleek, powerful fish we have to get out to one of the canyon fishing grounds and start before daybreak.  At the shelf where the ocean floor drops from a couple hundred feet to a couple thousand feet deep, the water temperature also rises.  That is where many pelagic game fish gather, as well as birds and other sea life.  We spent most of the day trolling for tuna.  We scored two yellowfin tuna, and saw a good sample of marine life.

The bird life was slower than I expected.  The morning hours produced only Wilson’s storm-petrels and some great shearwaters.  I really was hoping to spot Leach’s or band-rumped storm-petrels, jaegers or even a black-capped petrel, but none were around.  Chumming might have helped bring in some of those birds, but we were trolling and there was no bait slick to entice them.  Later in the day, as we were heading home, we came upon a few small feeding frenzies.  Larger numbers of storm-petrels were joined by several each of great, Cory’s and sooty shearwaters.  I was a little surprised that sooties were still around, as they pass by here on their clockwise journey around the Atlantic Ocean.
Left, Cory's shearwater.  Right, great shearwater.  © S. Weiss
Cory's shearwaters are the largest of our shearwaters.  Among the field marks for separating Cory's from great are the bill color and the underwings.  Cory's have a pale-yellow bill and greats have a black bill.  The underwing of a Cory's is clean white, while the great's is marked with a diagonal stripe.
A mixed gathering of shearwaters.  © S. Weiss
Sooty shearwater is on far left, two great shearwaters are on the right and Cory's shearwater is to the right of the sooty.

The weather and sea conditions for the day were spectacular.  The air temperature was in the mid 70’s, the sun was shining, and the ocean was calm.  The water temperature barely reached 70 degrees, but it is still early in the season.  As the water temperature rises, marine activity will also increase.  One of my favorite sights out on the ocean is a whale and this day we saw a fin whale.  Actually, we either saw one whale multiple times throughout the day or several individuals.  Hard to tell as we trolled backed and forth in the same general area most of the day.
Fin whale.  © S. Weiss
The fin whale is the second largest creature on the planet, second only to the blue whale.  With calm winds, one can identify some whales by their blow.  The fin whale's blow is tall and narrow.  A humpback's blow would be much wider and stouter.  A North Atlantic whale's blow would be split like a "V."  A sperm whale's blow would appear at a forward angle.

Several times we came upon very large pods of common dolphins.  These handsome dolphins put on spectacular shows as they zipped alongside, in front of and behind our boat, often leaping completely out of the water.  The common dolphins were around, on and off, for most of the day.  Around mid-morning I noticed what looked like a large, grayish-white dolphin leaping out of the water further away from the boat.  It turned out to be a Risso’s dolphin.  These dolphins are deep divers and are usually seen near the continental shelf or ledge.  A short time later we had a third species of dolphin appear.  A group of offshore bottlenose dolphins showed up near the boat with one making spectacular leaps and splashes right off the bow.  Offshore bottlenose dolphins are a different population from the inshore dolphins that most people see from the beach.  The two populations may soon become separate species.
Common dolphins.  © S. Weiss
The attractive common dolphin can be separated from other dolphins by its white and gray "hourglass" color pattern.  In the second photo (top right), to the far right, a calf is visible breaching with its mother.
Risso's dolphin.  © S. Weiss
Risso's dolphins are distinguishable by their bulbous heads, very short beaks, and heavy scarring marks across their bodies.
Offshore bottlenose dolphins.   © S. Weiss

Some other notable marine sightings for the day were dozens of hammerhead sharks swimming near the surface.  We saw one at first, then as the day went on there were loose groups of three or four at a time scattered around, swimming peacefully past with only their dorsal fins and the tips of their tail fins poking out of the water.  The same weekend last year, on a pelagic trip out of Cape May, NJ, we saw well over 100 hammerhead sharks out in the deep water.  Other fish we saw swimming at the surface on this sunny day were a large mola mola, or ocean sunfish, and a sicklefin devil ray.
Sicklefin devil ray.   © S. Weiss
Sicklefin devil rays are an endangered species.

Every pelagic outing seems different and, as for being my first warm weather trip of the year, this one was pretty good.





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