It was a day of non stop action reminiscent of many prior visits to Roca Partida only much more pronounced that anything I have ever seen here in the past. Taking what I witnessed today into account, I have to believe that the act of closing this island to large scale industrial fishing efforts has had a marked impact on the local environment. In short, I have never seen this area so filled with life, and the only comparison I can muster is some of our voyages to Clipperton island many years past.

Now the only downside for the fishing effort, particularly the wahoo fishing, is that the shark population at Roca Partida is almost beyond description with an aggressive disposition as an added bonus. It was almost impossible to land a wahoo without the fish getting mauled and even those that survived the gauntlet were at high risk of being consumed after release. As such we threw in the towel on the wahoo fishing after only a few stops realizing the futility of the effort. Overall we did manage to tag and release about fifteen wahoo successfully, but most of those we landed way off the bank surrounding "The Rock" in the zone that was relatively shark free.

As far as the tuna fishing was concerned I refer back to my original comment about the amount of life in the area that included quantities of 5 - 100# yellowfin tuna and jumbo 10 - 14# skipjack that I could only imagine. Not only were there incredible quantities of fish but it seemed that everyone of them was intent upon carrying a souvenir tag as their voracious appetite lead them to the boat just about everytime we pulled back the throttles. It made for some incredible visual displays and outrageous action as all anglers pitched in to catch, tag, and release as many as possible while the going was good. I can definitely report that very little tuna fishing took place today as the more appropriate description is tuna catching. Of course we had our woes with the sharks on some stops, but the size of fish on most stops, and the use of heavy gear enabled us to deploy well over two hundred tags with about twenty five percent of those in tuna forty pounds or better.

In the end it was another incredible day of fishing in beautiful weather in a beautiful setting. Yes the catching portion was a huge part of the fun, but to see the ocean so alive with every animal there in sync was the real magic; what an opportunity. The thought that came to my mind early in the day was that this must have been what it was like in the old days well before the industrialization of fishing. Upon departing the area in the late afternoon I believe the thought was right.

With that under our belts we are now underway for Isla Clarion where we will continue the effort tomorrow in search of both wahoo and more large size yellowfin tuna. We have four full days remaining and still a big load of magnificent sardines so it is with great anticipation that we head west towards our destination tomorrow.