A Radical Fishing Trip

We are presented with a list of poems and instructions to "Find these characters". We will quickly note that many of these poems seem to clue specific fish, but not all of them. From the flavor text and emojis, we can determine that the three varieties of poem are referring to "fish" (🐟), "bugs" (🐛), and "water" (🌊).

Most of the poems are straightforward, though some are a bit more cryptic. Here is the full list of items that the poems clue:

Poem	Emoji	Answer	Notes
Sand meets the water Where someone stands at the edge At the boundary	🌊	The shore
My sun-colored caudal fin Flees from the sushi master	🐟	A yellowtail	"Caudal" refers to the tail end of a creature
Tiger sharks watch out for me for I'm their sole predator	🐟	An orca/killer whale	The only predator of tiger sharks besides humans is the killer whale
I nest on a stone As they shout "double ugly" I'm no fisher's prize	🐟	A sculpin	Sculpins are sometimes known as "double uglies" and they lay their eggs on nests made of stones
The public docks their boats At this spot along the coast Safe haven for all	🌊	A harbor
I craft colors in the sky Not a bug, but a bright arch	🐛	A rainbow
I'm pretty, Señor, But life is hard when I'm dried And turned into flakes	🐟	A bonito/skipjack tuna	Reference to the name "Bonito" coming from the Spanish word for "pretty", as well as bonito flakes
My salt-preserved eggs Are a luxury dish fit For an emperor	🐟	A sturgeon	Caviar is usually made from salt-preserved sturgeon eggs
Wet grassy plain starts to flood Plants are brown like autumn leaves	🌊	A marsh
Normandy; soldiers stormed me Now I beckon the tourists	🌊	A beach	The Normandy landings took place on a beach, which is now a popular tourist spot
Luke's feathered friend? No, I'm scaled and swim in Earth's circumference	🐟	A porgy	Reference to the Porgs from Star Wars
From the capital Comes a most gentle giant Eating shrimp and krill	🐟	A whale
Rising, falling, with the moon Moving on every morning	🌊	The tide
This autumn I heard Someone say my noggin's more Feline than bovine	🐟	A bullhead	Bullheads are a close relative to the catfish
There is much wisdom found in Spinning webs just like I do	🐛	A spider

We notice that each poem is either a haiku or a couplet. The flavor text and the end instructions are also in haiku form. Looking up some of these terms together and with hints such as "radical fishing trip", "foreign seas", and "find these characters", we discover we need to look at Japanese kanji. Each poem clues a specific kanji and the emoji indicator at the top of each poem represents a radical in the kanji, specifically on the left hand side: 🐟 (fish = ⿂), 🐛 (bug = ⾍), 🌊 (water = ⺡).

Removing the left hand radical, we are left with another kanji, which has its translation somewhere in the poem. This also allows us to disambiguate any earlier answers.

Item	Emoji	Kanji (with romaji)	Remaining Kanji	Translation
Shore	🌊	渚 nagisa	者	Someone
Yellowtail	🐟	鰤 buri	師	Master
Orca/​Killer Whale	🐟	鯱 shachi	虎	Tiger
Sculpin	🐟	鮖 kajika	石	Stone
Harbor	🌊	港 minato	巷	The public*
Rainbow	🐛	虹 niji	工	Craft
Bonito/​Skipjack Tuna	🐟	鰹 katsuo	堅	Hard
Sturgeon	🐟	鰉 higai	皇	Emperor
Marsh	🌊	湫 kute	秋	Autumn
Beach	🌊	浜 hama	兵	Soldier
Porgy	🐟	鯛 tai	周	Circumference
Whale	🐟	鯨 kujira	京	Capital
Tide	🌊	潮 shio	朝	Morning
Bullhead	🐟	鰍 kajika	秋	Autumn
Spider	🐛	蜘 kumo	知	Wisdom

*The exact translation of this kanji is vague. Its most common meaning is used to refer to the public opinion, as in the "word on the street." This has been condensed to "the public" in order to fit in a haiku form.

Upon further inspection, we discover that each of the answer kanji has a standard pronunciation that has the same number of syllables as the number of lines in the poem that clues it. We take the corresponding line of each poem that has the key word in it and index that number into the syllables of the kanji that the poem is describing.

Using the blanks at the bottom of the puzzle, these syllables spell out GIRISHA KAMI NI TSUITE HAIKU O KAKU**. Submitting this asks us to complete the task, "Write a haiku about a Greek god." Once we have done so, we receive the answer POWERED SHIP.

**Would technically be written with WO in proper Japanese but is pronounced the same