Today we caught a lot of sharks! We were fishing about 15 miles southeast of Catalina Island, very close to the San Pedro ship channel. The afternoon set (we put out a long line with 200 hooks that scare off swordfish and tuna, but attract blues and makos) brought us 12 young blue sharks, most less than 3 feet (1 meter) fork length, which is the length from the tip of the snout to the fork in the tail. When that happens, we say we're fishing in "baby blue country".

We also caught one mako shark that looked as if it had been feeding on a Humboldt squid. It was covered with the repeated circular markings of the suction discs of the squid's tentacles. We first noticed these squid marks on mako sharks last year. Research at our lab at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center has shown that Humboldt squid are a common prey of mako sharks in this area. This is a photo that Carl Safina, our shipboard guest scientist, took. To see more of his photos, and what he had to say about the battle between Makos and squid, check out Carl's blog.

[ed. note: Catching these sharks, pulling them as gently as possible into a cradle, and then tagging them, can seem like all in a day's work for researchers, but it's dangerous business. Here's what Carl had to say about yesterday's activity: "It’s a bit hair-raising, and the phrase “If he hollers, let ‘im go!” popped into my head. The males are particularly rambunctious—a bad personality trait when combined with several rows of daggers in a vice. And while the Blues often blink to protect their own eyes when being bossed around, the Makos often swivel their eyes to watch who’s doing what. So far I haven’t seen a shark attempt to defend itself orally, but of course the risk exists; one bite would be too many."

-- ABOARD THE R/V DAVID STARR JORDAN, near Catalina Island, California.