The steady pace continues as we cherished another flat calm, beautiful day at Isla Clarion tagging a total of twenty six yellowfin tuna from 120 - 160#, one at 195, and another whopper that taped right at 300# for long time Royal Star veteran Dr. Dave Hall. Between the crystal clear mid day conditions and pristine tropical blue water, the sight of these fantastic creatures swimming away after being tagged and released is incredibly gratifying and one to behold. If you are still among the rapidly shrinking group of skeptics, clinging to the antiquated perspective that the only good tuna is a dead tuna, I would wager an awful lot that your perspective would change after participating in a project such as this. I have stated before that I wouldn't want to do this on every trip, and that opinion still stands, but this project, and the tag and release challenge, has added a whole new dimension to our traditional approach to sport fishing. In my estimation, the overall experience of battling and landing one of these magnificent tuna is actually broadened by the tag and release process. Not only does an angler receive identical gratification as a traditional angling triumph, as the fish is landed on the deck to validate and verify the catch in plain view of the world and plenty of enthusiastic witnesses, the sense of victory strikes much deeper as the next, most crucial part of the process begins. After the massive beasts are gently manipulated, the tags are placed, and photos are taken, the moment of truth, when typically every participant who is not pulling on a fish is leaning over the rail to shoot photos or watch, arrives with a one, two three, go! The tuna is pushed out the gate and with a splash is again free to the delight of everyone involved. The energy of everyone watching alone could likely power the fish as the victory is not complete until the fortunate beast either darts or lumbers away. Once it does a collective cheer goes out as the triumph is now complete. It is amazing to experience how infectious this process is. Believe me, coming from a fisherman, whose primal core instinct is to put fish aboard, I am genuinely ecstatic when I see these fish swim away. It validates our extreme efforts to protect the fish during the tagging process, but more importantly introduces the anglers to a dimension of satisfaction previously unknown.

All that said the decision to finish the tagging portion of this voyage at Isla Clarion was an obvious no brainer as the signs of yellowfin tuna around the island are fantastic and the Wahoo are still unfazed by our presence as we continue to only scrape the "cream" off each day. We have just short of the entire day tomorrow and more epic weather in the forecast so we hope to end on a strong note adding a few more tags to the growing list that is just over five hundred deployed total.