After spending a few days shore - bound by the weather, it was back to the field today for work and a little fishing. We did the Mount Trashmore site on the bayside of Long Key. TJ mentioned many times how great it was to get back in the water. . . oh for the days when a rainy day was not a welcome respite but a horrible stop in the daily diving, fishing, research action. Not all was lost with our days on shore. Michael managed to finish up some important work on the computer. TJ and I went into Marathon, picked up some supplies, and stopped in at the FWC to see Cindy and the crew. TJ also got to meet the giant lobster and I got soaked netting it out of the tank.
The next day called for rain again, so we decided to build some research gear for our upcoming project, codenamed OCTO (Operation Crab Tethering for Octopus). As is typical of marine science, since no one makes a device to tie a small swimming crab to the bottom for an octopus to catch later, we had to make one. We came up with three designs, one each, and built 2 of each design. My personal favorite is, of course, my own design, "THE CRAB-ER-ATE-OR 4000". As you can see from the picture below, it is a sleek and beautiful machine, and ready for deployment. Keep your eyes out for this baby to hit the late-night infomercial circuit any day now ("it slices, it dices, it tethers a crab to a plastic tube, and all for 3 easy payments of $19.95, plus shipping and handling!").
Michael's "T-crab" is also a strong contender,
as are TJ's Crabby Motel "crabs check in, but they don't check 0ut" and the Crab Buffet - All U Can Eat "Octopus Welcome." As you can see TJ is not one for brevity when it comes to naming research gear.
We all await with baited breath to see who's design wins the day. By the way, the crabs go inside the tubes and the whole thing is placed on the bottom near an octopus den. After a full day of engineering, we decided to go fishing. We headed out to Old Dan Bank and set up for some sharks. TJ hooked up with a good one, which ran him off about 100 yards of 65 lbs braid before biting through the wire leader. This shark has become TJ's White Whale. I hear him mumbling about the shark in his sleep from across the room ("I'll never buy cheap leader again, I'll never buy cheap leader again, I'll never. . . ). We will be back to get it, and for TJ's sake, hopefully sooner than later.
Today we slept in a bit after a pretty good gathering over at the Octogon house w/ the ODU lobster crew. This afternoon we hit the waters near Mount Trashmore, the highest point in the Keys at a whopping 35 feet above sea level. We got the site done and took some great cleaner shrimp pictures.
While Michael took photos of the shrimp, TJ and I molested some octopus, completing an additional 3 tickle stick tests. All in all, a pretty good weekend (although none of us can really remember what day it is anymore).
The next day called for rain again, so we decided to build some research gear for our upcoming project, codenamed OCTO (Operation Crab Tethering for Octopus). As is typical of marine science, since no one makes a device to tie a small swimming crab to the bottom for an octopus to catch later, we had to make one. We came up with three designs, one each, and built 2 of each design. My personal favorite is, of course, my own design, "THE CRAB-ER-ATE-OR 4000". As you can see from the picture below, it is a sleek and beautiful machine, and ready for deployment. Keep your eyes out for this baby to hit the late-night infomercial circuit any day now ("it slices, it dices, it tethers a crab to a plastic tube, and all for 3 easy payments of $19.95, plus shipping and handling!").
Michael's "T-crab" is also a strong contender, 
as are TJ's Crabby Motel "crabs check in, but they don't check 0ut" and the Crab Buffet - All U Can Eat "Octopus Welcome." As you can see TJ is not one for brevity when it comes to naming research gear.
We all await with baited breath to see who's design wins the day. By the way, the crabs go inside the tubes and the whole thing is placed on the bottom near an octopus den. After a full day of engineering, we decided to go fishing. We headed out to Old Dan Bank and set up for some sharks. TJ hooked up with a good one, which ran him off about 100 yards of 65 lbs braid before biting through the wire leader. This shark has become TJ's White Whale. I hear him mumbling about the shark in his sleep from across the room ("I'll never buy cheap leader again, I'll never buy cheap leader again, I'll never. . . ). We will be back to get it, and for TJ's sake, hopefully sooner than later.
Today we slept in a bit after a pretty good gathering over at the Octogon house w/ the ODU lobster crew. This afternoon we hit the waters near Mount Trashmore, the highest point in the Keys at a whopping 35 feet above sea level. We got the site done and took some great cleaner shrimp pictures. 
While Michael took photos of the shrimp, TJ and I molested some octopus, completing an additional 3 tickle stick tests. All in all, a pretty good weekend (although none of us can really remember what day it is anymore).
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