Tagging Tuna in St Margaret's Bay Pens
This is Mike Butler, a biologist who became expert at this. Two transmitters needed to be attached this 800-pound-plus, fast-moving tuna fish. The first transmitter goes into the stomach and the second is attached to the back. The one to go on the stomach was implanted in a bait fish that was dangled in the water. If a Tuna took the bait, Mike needed to ensure that he “harpooned” the other one to the fish’s back as it flashed by. The penalty for failure was severe – the technologists who spent weeks building the transmitters would have probably killed him!