out of the can

Last Saturday, Gabrielle and I got the opportunity to do some tuna fishing outside of the reef with my neighbor, an accomplished fisherman and teacher at my school.  Excited to try my hand at something other than spearfishing and crabbing, I woke up with Gabrielle around 5 in the morning to get to the docks in time for sunrise.  We rode the boat through swells that erased the horizon  until we were a couple miles offshore - about halfway to Ant Atoll.  After a half hour or so of fruitless searching for birds, we saw a flock far off in the distance and the driver pushed up the engine to its limits.  As soon as we got to the flock, we were literally engulfed by birds.  Apparently, since both the tuna and the birds eat the same kind of small fish, the birds can be found wherever there are schools of tuna beneath the surface of the water. 

We dropped our lines in the water and began trolling through the waves hoping for a bite.  Almost immediately, the driver, my neighbor, and I simultaneously got bites on each of our lines.  We furiously pulled in our lines by hand and each retrieved a tuna that was easily the largest fish I've ever caught in my life.  To my amazement, my neighbor was disappointed that we had come across a school of the "small tunas." Regardless, we worked our way through the water and caught fish almost continuously for an hour or so.  Usually, all three of us would get a bite at the exact same time, we'd reel the fish in, remove the hook, slam the tuna's head into the boat to knock it out, and then throw it to Gabrielle who would deposit the catch into the cooler. 

By virtue of the fact that we were fishing tunas, the water we were fishing in was also filled with sharks.  So, whenever we got a bite, it was a race to reel the fish in before the sharks could get to the tuna on our lines.  At one point, I was pulling in my line when I felt a stronger than normal tug and I saw a shark practically jump out of the water trying to get my fish.  It happened so close to the boat that I thought I had actually snagged a shark and was about to bring it aboard with us.  Luckily, I beat out the shark and got my fish on board before it could steal my hard-earned catch.  At one point, I jumped off the boat to relieve myself and while I was in the water I asked my neighbor if I should be concerned about sharks.  Nonchalantly, he replied "Nah."  After a pause, he added, "They wouldn't be able to finish you." Needless to say, I was not very successful at getting relaxed enough to use the bathroom for the two minutes I was in the water. 

In the end, we each caught around 20-30 tunas and filled a respectably-sized cooler to the brim.  I kept 7 of these and consequently my freezer has little room for anything other than fish.  I have learned that they make great gifts though - tuna meat is prized for sashimi - and I was able to pay back several of my other neighbors for their past generosity.  Now, I'm just looking forward to the day that I get to reel in one of the BIG tunas. 

The man in charge of piloting our small 40 hp boat.  I have no idea how he was able to see through the rain that was falling nearly horizontally as we bounced through the swells.  I believe that Pohnpei is looming behind the clouds somewhere in the background of this picture.

This is about as dry as I got through the duration of our trip.

At around 9am, we stopped for breakfast.  Delicious.  A tuna like this is prepared by cutting it like so, and dipping the raw chunks of meat into a mixture of seawater, lime juice, and sele - a locally grown hot pepper.  The four of us finished this fish off in a couple minutes.

Our cooler on its way to become filled up with tuna.  The remnants of breakfast are in the yellow bowl and will probably become crab bait sometime in the future.

My neighbor relaxing in the front of the boat while returning from a long morning of fishing.  We're approaching the channel that runs through Black Coral Island - a beautiful uninhabited island that locals use for vacations.  Again, if it were a clear day, you would see Pohnpei in the distance of this picture.

A tuna heart.  To hold us over until breakfast, we reached through the gills of our tunas and ripped a few of these out to eat for a snack.  A couple of mine were still beating as I plopped them into my mouth!

Getting ready to gut a couple of the tunas.  The one in my right hand is a Yellowfin tuna - the only one we caught out of our enormous array of Bluefins.