Hauling back...

While puncturing fish eyeballs, slinging bait and tossing high fliers overboard can be quite exhilarating and fulfilling (or not) hauling back probably is the more exciting process (or not - when you've pulled up a hundred hooks and got nada).
After an hour or so of soaking time we throw on our personal flotation devices (you wouldn't want to get caught in the line and dragged overboard. But if you do you'd want to have a vest on) and head to the front of the ship. We spot the high flier, the bridge navigates us right next to it and we nab it and haul it on board. The line gets fastened to the winch and we begin the process of hauling back, i.e. pulling every hook on board, checking whether or not we've caught anything.
Everything is tediously documented. We have one person at a laptop (yes Charly, the indestructible mission-impossible-esque toughbooks) who logs each hook - this laptop is interfaced with the ship's navigation system so it logs the exact position real time. The person removing the hooks calls out what we've got: 1 - no bait... 2 - no bait... 3 damaged... 4- no bait... etc (we usually get 'no bait) and then 23 - FISH ON.
Now things get exciting. We pull the (hopefully it's a) shark on board and the data recorder takes down all the details: "Number 23 Atlantic sharpnose (they're like the rabbits of the ocean, we usually pull them up), alive, male, immature, fork length 8-4-7 (mm so make that just under 3 feet), total length 9-7-0, weight (there's usually a bit of a pause as the person handling the shark removes the hook) 4 point 2 (kg - so about 9 pounds).
Then we toss the fish overboard. If it's not a sharpnose we'll take fin clippings for DNA-stuff and tag it before it goes overboard.
We generally only pull sharks up to about 4-5 feet on board. Anything bigger than that turns into a more complicated procedure involving a crane and "the craddle" - which is a metal basket. While one person is holding the line attached to the hook the shark swallowed (yes this isn't as easy as it sounds - the shark is usually thrashing and putting on a good show) the crew members leap into action attaching the basket to the crane, lowering it overboard and scooping up the shark. We get the measuring stick, measure it, weigh it, tag it and then either remove the hook or more likely decide that it's a better idea to let the shark have the hook and just clip the line.

Hauling back can be an exciting process of getting 20 or so sharks (I think the most we had on our shift so far was 30), a more relaxing process of 3-8 or the disappointing process of nothing.
But then there's always the next haul....