For a deep-sea angler, the story of this expedition belongs in the died-and-gone-to-heaven category: Nine days of fishing. In gorgeous, sunny weather. In a place where nobody can fish anymore.

This past February 2007, 18 avid sport fishers joined me (Kurt Schaefer) and Dan Fuller of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission and Gabriel Aldana Flores from the National Institute of Fisheries in Mexico (INP) aboard the San Diego-based 92-foot long-range sport fishing vessel Royal Star. Our fishing spot: the Revillagigedo Islands Marine Reserve, Mexico. Our goal: To tag and release yellowfin tunas, skipjack and wahoo, as part of a project we’re doing with TOPP and INP.

This project began in 2002, shortly after the Mexican government created a six-mile no-fishing zone around the Revillagigedo Archipelago. The project brings together the sportfishing industry with the scientific community to study the movements and behavior of yellowfin and wahoo. Each of the sportfishermen paid $5,000 for the boat time, and $1,500 for an archival computer tag that we deploy on the tuna. This is the second time we've put this expedition together. We did the first one in 2006.

The permit obtained from the Mexican government for this tag-and-release fishing project provides a unique opportunity to conduct a comprehensive scientific evaluation of the movements and behavior of yellowfin tuna and wahoo with the Revillagigedo Islands Marine Reserve and the areas to which they move.

On Feb. 15, with all aboard, the Royal Star’s captain and owner, Tim Ekstrom, told his crew of three to pull the anchor in Cabo San Lucas as we were heading for San Benedicto Island, 220 miles south-southwest. This tiny rock – only about 2.3 miles long – is a classic volcanic island with a large central crater. A few yellowfin and wahoo appeared, enough to whet our anticipation. We caught a few, tagged them, and let them go.