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This large haul of 11
yellow-fin tuna, caught by my friends, Tony & Monason, came into shore
about 4pm. Just about the same time as a weak tropical storm Erika was
beginning to move across the island. Knowing that several fishermen were
due back in and that the storm was arriving, many of the other local
fisherman gathered on the shore to help out as needed with unloading and
cleaning fish and then pulling boats out of the water (by hand). When
very rough seas and high winds are expected, the guys all rally to lift
and pull their boats to higher ground... in this case, 75-100 feet away
from shore.
On this day, because of
the rough waves, the boat was tied about 40 feet from shore. Several of
us then waded out waist to stomach deep, hefted a tuna to
shoulder and walked a balancing act back to shore over the rocks,
through the waves and up the beach to the cleaning table.
Cleaning the catch is a
friend-help-friend shared chore, that occurs rather quickly. But,
before the process begins, a fire has already been started, with small "bonitio"
tuna cut in half, dipped in sea water for seasoning and placed over the
open flames for quick cooking and ongoing snacking. It doesn't get
any fresher than this!
Once the tuna are rough
cleaned they are quickly loaded into the back of a truck and taken to
coolers for chilling / freezing and later cutting. These tuna,
between 75-125 lbs produce round slabs of meat a little larger than a
dinner plate. |
