Empty Handed

This afternoon a few of us decided to make a trip up to Coast Guard in search of dinner. Our main goal was to catch some lobster, but we planned to get a few conch and possibly a fish if we had time. It was a fruitless effort. And it gave us some insight into how depleted the fisheries (at least very local fisheries) are. We couldn't even find a lobster big enough to legally take, let alone catch one. We didn't find a single conch, and so we had no bait to catch a fish. We had pasta instead. If we were cavemen, we'd be hungry.

Wild donkeys that roam up near Coast Guard.

If we swam out farther towards the breakers, I'm sure we would have had more luck, but it's quite a long ways out and better accessed by boat. We found six small lobsters, which would have been tasty, but left them to grow. Overfishing of those small ones is a major reason nobody can catch larger ones anymore. Even though we came back empty handed, it was entertainment for the evening.

Fishing Licenses

Lately we've been a little lazy about updating this blog. It's not so much that nothing is going on, but more it really takes an effort to keep it up to date. And also, it would probably bore the audience if we wrote about every snorkel, every dive, every Eagle Ray, every shark, and every turtle. I have to say though, I quite like a life where those things are the mundane!

Over a week ago now, we finally got around to getting our fishing licenses (even though open season began on 1 August). We're now cleared to catch lobster, conch, turtles (!), and fish. So far we haven't caught anything (but we've only tried once). But after seeing one of the staff cleaning fresh fish last night for a meal today, I'm newly motivated. Catching lobster should be pretty easy and, of course, catching a conch is simple.

I didn't particularly want this photo circulating the internet, but oh well.

Our one fishing outing so far, however, wasn't for the purpose of food. We're both signed up to help one of the faculty in his fish research project. He's joined up with the Smithsonian and is collecting genetic samples for a broader, Caribbean-wide project. We went out one morning with him to test out a couple of seine nets. What we learned is that they're actually very difficult to use, especially when there's a strong current (which there happened to be). The flowing water pulled the net with such force that it made it almost impossible to walk with it. We didn't catch anything, but seagrass and some sargassum weed!

We'll be hosting a few people from the Smithsonian in October and they'll be bringing some other supplies for us, including Hawaiian Slings and a spear gun. Any sort of spearing of fish is (technically) banned in TCI, but we've gotten special approval from the DECR (Dept. of Environment and Coastal Resources) to use them for this project. This way we'll be able to target the specific fish that are needed for the project instead of pulling up ones that aren't necessary.

Open Season

Today was opening day of lobster season. This is pretty big deal here on South Caicos, as the economy is almost entirely based on the fisheries. Coincidentally, today I saw my first two lobsters while snorkeling. They were inside of one of the Marine Protected Areas at the south end of Long Cay so they were (at least theoretically) safe from all the fishermen. Down here we have Spiny Lobster, which are quite different from the ones in New England that most Americans are familiar with. Spiny Lobster don't have claws.

Caribbean Spiny Lobster

The lobsters are caught using a method called gigging. A metal hook is fastened to the end of a stick and is used to pull the lobsters out of their holes. The natural reaction of a lobster is to move backwards quickly to get away when scared or threatened. So the fishermen put the hook underneath the lobster and pull forward. When the lobster attempts to retreat they only become more strongly hooked. I'm not entirely clear on how the process works as I've only ever had it described to me. But I do plan on getting a fishing license and trying my hand at it.

A boat returned to the dock with it's catch.

Several of us went down to the public dock this afternoon to see all the lobstermen come in with the catches. They all use really small motor boats (probably not much bigger than 12 or 15 feet), and they just toss the lobsters in hull. Some had caught a few fish, and one person had caught a few Spanish Lobsters for his own consumption (which, he said, were the best tasting of all lobster species), but by far they were after the Spiny Lobster.

Shoveling Lobster

All the boats lined up at the dock where they waited for their turn to have their lobsters weighed. When they got to the front of the line they shoveled (literally shoveled) their lobsters into baskets and handed them up to the inspectors. One man dumped the baskets into a large hanging scale, and another sorted through them. The ones that were obviously under the allowable size he tossed aside into a pile on the floor. The ones that were close to the allowable size he would measure using a plastic gauge. This part upset some of the SFS staff because all the fishermen had quite a few that were obviously under size. They were all already dead, so they couldn't be returned to the water, but there didn't seem to be any penalty for having taken an under size lobster. They just didn't get weighed with the fisherman's haul, and so he wasn't paid for having caught it. I suppose they could have mistakenly caught a few small lobsters because they were hiding too far under a rock or if they were close to the limit, but there we so many that it appeared to be deliberate. I can only guess that some people take small lobsters and hope a few get through the screening undetected. The small ones that get thrown aside don't go to waste because we watched them get de-shelled and put in cooler, but it's not clear where they go. My suspicion is that they'll make their way into the black market.

Inspection

Inspector measuring a lobster.

Discarded under-size lobsters.

Once the fisherman has emptied his boat (yes, his boat - women aren't involved in catching them), and the inspector has pulled out the small lobsters, he calls out the total weight, which is recorded by another inspector. It appeared that the fisherman was then given a receipt, and (I'm not certain but) it looked like he went inside the building for payment - I saw a man walking out with a handful of cash.

Lobster Heads

The scale is then dumped into a wheelbarrow, and the lobsters are taken inside to be processed. This is where the women are involved. In fact, every person inside was female. The first thing they do is grab the head and tail of the lobster and twist. It separates quite easily. The meat-filled tail goes down the line and the head is discarded. I couldn't see much beyond this because it didn't appear the onlookers were allowed further inside, but I think the meat was then cut from the tail and, I assume, frozen. The heads were thrown back into a wheelbarrow and taken back to the dock where they were loaded into another boat to be taken to the bay and dumped (I'm sure there's a frenzy of fish and probably sharks around where they dump them).

A wheelbarrow full of lobster.

Women working in processing plant.

Lobster heads on the way to be dumped.

It appeared that the fishermen are basically contractors working for an owner of the processing plant. But I suppose the plant could also be a cooperative owned by the fishermen. I will try to find out. Now Jessee and I are off to a place called Darryl's to get some fresh lobster to eat!