The wind and seas came up a bit today as we searched around for baby bluefin tuna.

A small sport fishing boat from San Diego had reported catching a handful of the collectable sized bluefin in waters just offshore. So we worked the area all day long. We had a nice stop on small Albacore late in the day but no bluefin. We have hypothesized that the weather may have pushed the fish down. But- it is the new moon phase and we know now from our 180 plus returned archival tagging data that the bluefin are very responsive to the moon phase and we find they are up closer to the surface both day and night during the new moon. In fact when the dive they go down to the top of the thermocline- and spend most of the day foraging between the surface and the thermocline. That is why we're out right now- I think we have a higher chance of encounter with the bluefin during these new moon periods. I have high hopes for Friday the 13th. Barbara Block, Chief Scientist Tagging of Pacific Predators www.topp.org