The Superbowl, a day off, and Gill-netting

It's been a couple days since the last post so I apologize to anyone actually following this (mom and dad you don't count).  This whole wake up at 8 am, spend 7 hours on a boat, and then stay up till midnight routine isn't exactly on par with my normal sleep schedule, and i say "sleep schedule" because there definitely used to be more sleep involved than scheduled activities.  Nonetheless, I'm starting to understand that whole "carpe diem" thing and can acknowledge that I am now hopelessly addicted to coffee (currently drinking my 4th cup today at 8 PM).

Despite the unfortunate absence of the Giants, I enjoyed the Superbowl and think the Saints deserved to win.  Don't get me wrong I like the Colts, but once the possibility of a Bret Favre Superbowl meltdown/sob-fest disappeared I was rooting for the Saints.  The beach club bar here was a good time, especially because they screwed up and never charged me for my prime rib sandwich.

Elena and Steph were drunk by kickoff and, for some unknown reason, were given whistles and rattles.  As a result, today the two of them were having difficulty catching much of anything besides themselves.  Luckily, monday was a day off and I spent the post-hangover day spear fishing around South Bimini.

Today we went gill-netting in the North Sound with the hope of catching several juvenile lemon sharks to perform stomach eversions on.  The gill nets we use are about 175 yards long and 5 feet deep.  We tied one end to the mangroves and stretched the net westward into the sound.  Over the next five hours we managed to catch six sharks and decided to perform eversions on the three least stressed sharks.  For an eversion, a shark is placed in a tub containing a general anesthetic until it goes to sleep.  Once asleep, the shark is held slightly upside-down while forceps are used to gently pull its stomach out its mouth.  The contents of the stomach are later analyzed to determine the sharks diet.  The shark is then held upright while the stomach is gently replaced.  Finally, a bilge pump is used to force water across the sharks gills until it regains consciousness and is able to swim freely again.

Essentially, the whole process is similar to getting wisdom teeth pulled; you pass out peacefully, someone does some really invasive work on you, and when you regain consciousness you're loopy as fuck and have no idea what the hell just happened.