Is 1500 lbs of dead fish like a wedding? …after all the good liquor is consumed and the guests start departing, you’re left with the bride – and the bill?
I am accosted in the hallway with a “you fish, right?” comment. The speaker points to the screen of his PC – displaying a grinning angler, 42 quarts of blood, and 1400 pounds of Black Marlin hanging from block and tackle.
I assume this is going to be another, “You fish therefore you’re a Beast” conversation, and as I prepare my rebuttal, I am thrust off balance by his follow up question. “What do you do with all that dead fish?”
I confess, I really don’t know.
I had always assumed that part of the charter involved sending you 1400 cans of something-or-other, but the postage would bankrupt you. I have never fished “big game” before, and have even wondered what the guy holding the 60lb carp was going to do.
I figure a third of any fish is skin, cartilage, guts, and fins. Add another 10% to waste in the fillet process, and a 1500 lb fish is still a formidable 900lbs of dead flesh. Any “good” woman is going to prevent you from foisting that carcass on her – at the point of a shotgun, no less.
Being the traditional “Bwana, Great Hunter” type – you really dont care for eating fish, but occasionally do buy fish sticks, nicely sterile, breaded, and frozen. If we assume that 1lb of fish is a dinner serving (for one), then you and the spouse have 450 dinners in the freezer.
You’re the outdoors guy in your neighborhood, and the normal channels of “laundering” dead game, is to fob the fish on your neighbors. Assuming each package is approximately 5 lbs, you need 90 families (who still speak to you).
10 homes on my block, 20 – if you count both sides of the street. If we allow for the folks you have pissed off; revving your truck before 6AM, recipients of “freezer burned” fish, and those that you gave the “naturally stuffed” fish to… you just fed eight city blocks of people with that one corpse.
“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and answer the door with ‘You killed it, you eat it.’ “
Like you, I am a fly fisherman and must answer for all the angling brotherhood. Explaining to non anglers the secret rituals, the devil worship, and how to tell a good fib. Can anyone help?
Most of these big game captains let you keep some tiny fraction of the fish, and sell the rest at market. Kind of a raw deal, but like you said… whatcha gonna do with 900lbs of fish meat?
I would have never expected that – naturally I assumed you had already paid for the charter, therefore the fish was yours.
Especially odd is the fish would be “sport caught” but sold commercially, something that would get me a hefty fine and a ticket were I to do that with a salmon. California requires “fin clipping” to distinguish between a dead sport fish and a dead commercial fish. The assumption is that were the fish to find its way to market, an inspector could spot the clipped fin.
Thanks much for the education, Dragon – it is appreciated.
At least, that’s the way it works with Charters in Hawaii. I asked a friend about it when I was thinking of going down there.
Up here in Vancouver BC – same as you: Commerical boys keep their stuff, rec guys keep theirs and ne’er the two shall meet 🙂 I wonder how many Halibut loving freinds I could find if I caught a 200lb Hali? Yikes!