Joining Team Pelagic's Stephen & Michelle Boyle for an excursion aboard their immaculate 39' Contender, 'Boyle'n Point', our team was treated to everything the island paradise of Bimini has to offer - and then some! From early-season wahoo offshore, to bonefish on the pristine Bahamian flats, and everything in between, a 50-mile escape from South Florida across the Atlantic straights to Bimini is a must-add to your angling bucket list.
. . .
"Livin' It", courtesy of our friends, Stick Figure
Kiss me, baby!
Female angler Cheyenne Lee. She has a few followers on Instagram. I wonder why?
So this is it, I'm going to end up on a dinner plate.
Good eating, my friends.
Fishing from a canoe early in the morning. Does it get any better than that?
Painting by Winslow Homer.
Batoidea is a superorder of cartilaginous fish commonly known as rays and skates, approximately 560 described species in thirteen families. They are in the fish subclass Elasmobranchii, along with sharks, to which they are closely related. Rays are distinguished by their flattened bodies, enlarged pectoral fins that are fused to the head, and gill slits that are placed on their ventral surfaces.
Dino Ferrari and his twin brother Dario caught a monster catfish in Po River after wrangling with it for 40 minutes.Weighing in at 127 kg (280 lbs) and measuring 2.67 meters (8.8 feet), this fish is a tad bit bigger than a guppy.
Photos: Sportex Italia
Barracuda!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2obQ4kTNcc]
Nothing like being up close and personal. Mommy!
Bonne annee !
La vahiné !
Wahine: Brooke Thomas | Fish: Bass
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ05z6ebKDQ]
So we've heard about how fluids can have different viscosities and Newtonian fluids have constant viscosities, where as non-Newtonian fluids have viscosities that change depending on the shear rate or speed with which the object lives through them. Okay, that makes sense.......Go Fish!
Apparently in the future we are going to have micro robots swimming around inside of us with the mission to rid us of bad things. One application discussed is the repair of our eyes. The micro-scallops will gleefully swim in our eye fluid and zap any distortions that they find on the eyeball. Take that Cataract!
We have travelled a long way since scracthing fleas from our hairy bodies on those hot summer nights around the camp fire on the African veldt. Kumbaya!
He's just a gentle giant...so misunderstood by those two legs.
Mommy!
Eh brah, Mahi-mahi!
"The mahi-mahi or common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) is a surface-dwelling ray-finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. Also known widely as dorado, it is one of two members of the Coryphaenidae family, the other being the pompano dolphinfish.
The name mahi-mahi means very strong in Hawaiian. In other languages the fish is known as dorade coryphène, lampuga, llampuga, lampuka, lampuki, rakingo, calitos, or maverikos." - Mr. Wkipedia
Wahine: Britteny
Try and make it out onto or into the water this weekend!
Taxonomy
The blacktip shark was first described by Valenciennes in Muller & Henle (1839) as Carcharias (Prionodon) limbatus. It has also appeared in the literature as Carcharias (Prionodon) pleurotaenia, Carcharias microps, Carcharias (Prionodon)muelleri, Carcharias maculipinna, Carcharias ehrenbergi, Carcharias aethlorus, Gymnorrhinus abbreviatus, Carcharias phorcys, and Carcharhinus natator. The currently valid scientific name is Carcharhinus limbatus (Müller and Henle 1839). The genus name Carcharhinus is derived from the Greek "karcharos" = sharpen and "rhinos" = nose. The species name "limbatus" originates from Latin, meaning bordered in reference to the black markings on its fins.
Common Names
The blacktip shark gets its name from its distinctive black markings on the tips of its fins. It is also known as blackfin (Guam, Micronesia, Trinidad and Tobago), black-tipped (Papua New Guinea), small blacktip (Cuba, Leeward Islands), and spot-fin ground shark (UK).
Geographical Distribution
Blacktip sharks are cosmopolitan in tropical to subtropical coastal, shelf, and island waters. In the Atlantic during their seasonal migration they range from Nova Scotia to Brazil, but their center of abundance is in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. They occur throughout the Mediterranean and along the central West coast of Africa. In the Pacific they range from Southern California to Peru, including the Sea of Cortez. They occur at the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, Tahiti, and other South Pacific Islands, to the North coast of Australia. In the Indian Ocean they range from South Africa and Madagascar up to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, throughout India's coast, and east to the coast of China.
World distribution map for the blacktip shark
Habitat
The blacktip shark inhabits inshore and offshore waters, but is not a truly pelagic species. They are often seen nearshore around river mouths, bays, mangrove swamps, and in other estuaries, though they do not penetrate far into freshwater. They can be found offshore and over deep waters near coral reef dropoffs, but primarily stay in the upper 100 feet (30 m) of the water column.
A young blacktip shark cruises the Caribbean shallows
© Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch
Eh brah, dere no fish in dat picture. Jus wahines!
Wait a second, Joe. You can't fool me. That's seaweed!
We thank the church for fish on Fridays.
I know, I wanted Mac n' cheese when I was a kid. But then I grew up, and appreciate the finer things in life.
Look what I caught, Ma!
Photo from Captain Mike.
