Just got an email from Dr. Randy..turns out the tuna we caught last week on 8-15-06 was one of the same fish we caught last year for the sonic tagging study at the Medusa Platform conducted by USF..
See email to me below..
Scott,
You had this fish's number, because it WAS one that you/we had caught on 7/19/05. Maybe we should call it "Lucky" because it was caught twice, and because its number is 13. It was 106 cm curved fork length when released. That length converts to right around 50 lb, depending on which published conversion factor is used. Your fork length of 53 inches (134.6 cm) converts to an estimated weight of 101-106 lb (just to put it into the same terms). So you were spot on when you said it had doubled in size.
The fish stayed at Medusa for 13.6 days after it was caught and released there, was absent for a week (6.9 days) before leaving on 8/2 at 07:38; returned the first time on 8/9 at 05:15; remained for 1.7 days, leaving at 21:00 on 8/10; was absent for a month (30.4 days) before returning on 9/10 at 6:12 and staying at Medusa for only 14.4 hr before departing the same day at 20:38.
Randy E. Edwards, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor