Biology Reference
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to a safer anchorage, where three big tuna boats had also pulled in to
wait out the storm.
Any productive collecting was now out of the question, so we re-
laxed, read the topics we'd brought along, or fished for fun or supper.
Catching a seven-foot-long blacktip shark o¤ the stern created one flurry
of interest, but boredom eventually set in.
At one point somebody—and my hazy memory points the finger at
Kiwala—suggested that we do a scientific taste test of the several brands
of tequila we'd bought in Cabo San Lucas. Seemed like a great idea at
the time, but it sure didn't the next morning. Luckily, the storm hadn't
let up, so at least we didn't have to go diving and chase darting, elu-
sive fish while nursing hangovers. I don't remember now which tequila
came out the winner. Perhaps the test needs to be repeated—but with
a dedicated scribe to legibly record the results.
Eventually the storm passed, and after a couple more days of col-
lecting we had the live-well on the boat full of fish. The time had come
to head back. The trip north from Socorro to Cabo San Lucas, where
we would refuel, is what we call uphill, which meant pounding our
way right into the swells coming down from the Gulf of Alaska. It was
a rough, twenty-five-hour haul, and we were miserable. Anything that
wasn't bolted down went flying. I spent most of the daytime hours ly-
ing flat on my back on the deck of the main lounge.
We refueled at the Cape, and three and a half days later we pulled
into San Diego Harbor to unload the fish and collecting gear. We had
pulled o¤ another successful collecting adventure, and went on to cre-
ate the first major exhibit of the beautiful and unique fishes from the
remote Revillagigedo Islands. The tropical reef tank at Sea World was
a spectacular sight, highlighted by dozens of bright-orange Clarion an-
gelfish and crosshatch triggerfish, and the smaller focus tanks in the
marine aquarium were now filled out with morays, scorpionfish, and
a wide variety of exotic invertebrates.
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