I take it all back (Nov 29)

Ok well may be not all of it, and not even close to most of it, but what I do take back in quick order is my statement a recently that I would celebrate when the tuna escaped the nets. My brief flirtation with being a tuna sympathizer has passé because now those little scaled

The Great Tuna Escape (Nov 27)

The net boat is off the back of the Caribe with a slam, and the net and chains attached to it begin to follow, the clink of links slamming on the deck as they spill over into the blue ocean. The Captain is up in the tower watching the school of yellow-fin zig left and

It’s a little bit like Prison (Nov 27)

I’m very good at research, it’s something I pride myself on – that certain skill that not everyone has, or some people even loath. Before I buy a product, go to a new restaurant, pick a flight school, and in this case pick a job – I do a ton of research. The thing about

The Drift (Nov 26)

So here we are in the middle of the ocean just drifting. The engine is humming with life but there is something wrong. We aren’t moving, and we haven’t moved now since last night. The crew are either hidden away getting much needed sleep or working on busy work tasks from the officers. They added

A Tradition of Tuna, maybe (Nov 26)

Sashimi is a universal word. Especially on a Tuna boat, it doesn’t matter where you are from, you know what sashimi means and you celebrate every time someone says it – because they won’t say it unless you’re about to eat it. There are crew on this boat that don’t speak the same language as

Walking on the Walls (Nov 25)

Trying to walk on a boat that has 300 tons of tuna hanging off of the port side is a lot like trying to walk while drunk. In fact doing anything on a boat with 300 tons of tuna is reminiscent of a drunken stupor. The boat keels over about 30 degrees and everything not

The Fleet (Nov 24)

Today was an interesting day, for me at least. At some point last night we wound up meeting up with 3 other ships from Don Wong tuna company for a little bit a fleet fishing activities. 2 other helicopters from Tropic were out there too. It’s a novelty item for me since for the last

Rendezvous (Nov 23)

We set sail late last night for the location of a “payow” that we had visited a day before and had left a radio buoy on. That is a good distinction to make, the type of buoy determines your next few days, and the day before we had placed two different radio buoys and on

Fish On (Nov 22)

Finally we made our first set today. I say finally for my own sake, as I had never seen it done before. It was an interesting all day process. Yesterday we set two radio beacons afloat on different “payow” (still not convinced they aren’t saying payout considering today’s catch) and the Captain picked one to

Storm a brewin’ (Nov 21)

Storm a brewin’ The storm gathers all around us. It moved in under the cover of night. The flight deck is covered in the leftover pools of rain water and the growing collection of sea water splashed across the bow as we break the increasing swells. In the distance, in any direction, the darkened sky