Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Finding them is not a problem, but, if you're alone, how do you drive the boat in a storm and capture/kill them?

They aren't that tanky if you're at least at the iron age. Before they stick their head out of the water and scream, you can sneak attack them. But by then, if you have the huntsman bow, their health is already at half. Couple more arrows and they're gone. They are really easy to kill solo, believe me. If you're afraid of your boat taking damage, keep a stack of wood in your ship's storage, go to the nearest land and put down a workbench to repair.

The meat floats so you don't need to capture and bring it to land. You only want to capture them if you want the scales, but you don't need to for the meat.