This post is dedicated to my dear brother, Chris, without whom I never would've thought it was a good idea to get on a boat at 6am, drive out in the ocean halfway to Iran, and feed barracuda with four other guys. But yes, things have gotten desperate here in the Emirate of Dubai - our apartment was out of food. So, we hopped in the car, drove to Sharjah (the next Emirate over - about an hour ride), and chartered a fishing boat for the day.
Our captain, a extremely nice man from Lebanon, was also an avid diver and spearfisher. What that meant was that not only did he know exactly where to fish, he knew everything about the ocean floor. "The snapper are down there on the bottom, feeding on bait fish in the rocks. They won't go more than a meter up, becuase there are hundreds of barracuda circling, waiting to attack. Your line is on the ground - the snapper are looking for it, trying to find where the smell of sardines is coming from. Wait for it...wait for it". The man was a bit of a fish whisperer, but he was usually right. 
We caught a trove of fish - about 40 in our five-hour expedition. By about 11am, nothing was biting (mostly becuase they were all in our baitwell, getting ready for dinner). You can see the genocide here - one fish, two fish, red fish, uh, barracuda fish:
I even caught the only tuna, though it was also a record for the smallest fish caught on the trip. That, however, didn't stop Imad from immediately going for some impromptu sashimi.
Lastly, we pulled back in past the Sharjah coast guard, and took the day's catch over to the fish market for cleaning. I say that very loosely, since there wasn't a single thing with half a mile of this place that I'd call clean:
Don't forget to watch the video: http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.mueller/SharjahFishing0808/photo#5235605481182504530And the day victorious, the men then travelled back to their caves to prepare dinner for the women. As always, the full photograph evidence is available here: http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.mueller/SharjahFishing0808
1 comment:
With all the barracuda down there, it's amazing that you didn't find an excuse to put on your dive gear again.
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