Venice Offshore Fishing - A Bit of Science
As everyone may recall, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas lost most all their fish during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It has been a slow process to restock their facility with thousands of fish from the Gulf of Mexico and betond.
Just before the snapper opener, I decided to try and get them out for a "fish collecting" trip in Venice. Who better to assist with that task than one of the top Venice offshore charter captains who just happens to also be a marine biologist -- Capt. Brett Falterman.
We loaded their 1000 gallon tank on the back of the 32-Twin Vee "Kraken" the night before, along with oxygen tanks, bubble stones and oversize landing nets.
Wednesday morning dawned with seas coming out of the South instead of the forecasted East blow. We headed out Main Pass in search of a few specimens, and the Twin Vee handled the seas and the large tank exceptionally well.
We were dismayed to find that the current was ripping so bad at our first stop in the 70-block near POGO that we couldn't get to the bottom even with 3-pounds of lead. This was not looking good. Within an hour, the wind was gusting so bad that it was almost impossible to throw the rope to hook onto the platform, but Christa, John and Rich from the Aquarium were troopers and hung in there.
Capt. Brett kept trudging south and we found a rig that was fishable and put a bait down. The rod bucked and a fish was hooked -- at least we had something. When the fish swam to the surface, I yelled "Cobia!" and John grabbed the net. Into the tank went the fish -- a fat 40 pound cobia which needed no care from the crew. I added a weird flounder from deep water, which we have yet to identify.
Next came a few scamp, 2 gag grouper and a porgy, all of which took the the tank nicely. Four nice red snapper joined the party and all agreed the day was a success.
Rich was fishing on the bow when something different took his live pogie. The rod bent hard, Brett dropped what he was doing and hand lined the Power Pro as Rich tried in vain to catch up and break the fish off the bottom and out of the oil rig. When the fish was coming up, I told Christa to get the net, that this wasn't a scamp. Sure enough, a 40-pound warsaw popped to the surface, eyes bulging.
Resembling an ER trauma team, the Aquarium crew went to work bleeding gases from the bloated fish. We quickly decided to make some room in the tank and ditched two of the snappers.
We made the decision to head in as the seas were pretty bouncy and we wanted to take our time so as not to beat up the prize fish.
When we pulled up at Venice Marina, the mobile tank was only steps away from the dock. John fired up the generator and we transported the warsaw to the big oxygenated tank, along with the snapper, scamp, grouper and cobia. Seems the flounder had a heart attack when that big warsaw hit the tank, so it didn't make it.
The warsaw looked good for a while, and the fish would have been one of the first warsaws in captavity, but like it's predecessor from the trip last March with Scott, it expired at the Aquarium.
Christa reported that the cobia, gag, scamp, porgy and snapper are all alive and well and most began to eat a couple of days ago. That is a major step when a fish feeds in captivity.
Thanks to Conoco-Phillips for funding this fish collecting expedition. We appreciate their dedication to restoring the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas to its former status as a world class aquarium.
