A flawless arrival yesterday evening prefaced what will be a productive week ahead as we make final preparations to Royal Star for the big season that begins next Friday. Before moving on to our traditional voyages however I want to make final mention of the Revillagigedo tagging project that has been so instrumental and transformational since 2006. Eleven voyages total were made to the Revilla reserve where for the first time ever anglers ventured long range voyages for the sole purpose of science and research donating thousands of specimens to this tagging study. Other than a handful or two of anglers who were well ahead of the traditional perspective that everything needed to be taken in order to validate the success of any given voyage, it required a few trips for the idea to gain momentum. The overwhelming success, and countless stories of ecstatic anglers returning with tales unlike anything previously known, compelled more anglers to experience the process first hand. Without fail everyone who did came away from these voyages with a changed perspective of what is possible in the way of landing, handling, and releasing large yellowfin tuna.

A tremendous amount of dedicated effort was applied to the idea by Royal Star crewmen as we worked tirelessly to advance and improve our knowledge and methods of effectively tagging large yellowfin tuna. In this respect it can be safely stated that no other crew presently possesses the unique skill set necessary to efficiently meet such a challenge. This said I want all Revillagigedo tagging participants, and anyone interested in such unique opportunities, to know that the end of this project does not close the door on future tagging opportunities on Royal Star. While there is nothing presently tangible, there are talks in progress, and several ideas in the works to continue our involvement in yellowfin tuna tagging studies in some form.

We will certainly keep one and all updated on any opportunities as they come to be. In the meantime I do wish to express my sincere gratitude to both the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Pesca for allowing us the one of a kind opportunity to join the scientific community and combine our resources and efforts to the benefit of advancing management strategies of the yellowfin tuna resource in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. Data, details, and conclusions from this project are forthcoming as lead scientists Kurt Schaefer, Dan Fuller, and Gabriel Aldana gather and process information from tags that come in to their laboratories at almost a daily rate.

Updates will continue throughout the upcoming week as I still have a wealth of photos, and a few more stories to share. Today's photo features angler James Moran with a "stock" 140 who made the journey all the way from Australia to join us on the final Revilla tagging voyage. This being James' first voyage targeting large yellowfin tuna, he tagged and released a "deuce", numerous 160 - 180's, and countless other 70 - 100's, to confirm the fact that while he was new to this fishery, he was not new to fishing; he took to it like a fish takes to water. I'll end today's narrative on that sorry attempt to insert a little humor. I need about three hours of rest per night for around ten or twelve consecutive days to really crank up the levity.

Tim Ekstrom

Photo Here...