Gone Fishin'

Errata: I have recently published false information. In an earlier posting, I mentioned that fishing off of the oil rigs was no longer allowed. This information was mistaken, for as it turns out, the rig I am on has taken out a license so that any of the employees are free to fish when they are not on shift.

So I have spent some time during my current hitch watching the rig crew as they fished the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and I would just like to say that I will never again dismiss fishing as "not really a sport". The sort of fishing that goes on out here is athletic, challenging, and just as likely to cause some sort of tennis elbow-like injury as "real" sports.

Standing by the railings on the edge of the rig, you can see pale shadows in the water. These are barracudas circling around. They feed on the food scraps that the kitchen throws overboard, and sometimes they get a bite out of whatever booty is being hauled up at the end of the line. Once a barracuda was inadvertently snagged on the hook. He was able to free himself before being hauled up to the deck, but was so dazed when he hit the water again that he was quickly devoured by the more alert neighboring barracudas.

Farther out and deeper in the water are the yellowfin tuna. These are the prizes that most of the fishermen out here are after, and they are large and fast and hard to catch. I haven't witnessed anyone successfully reel in one of these guys, but the directional driller who recently went home took about 30lbs of tuna fillets that he had frozen after hauling them in.

Yum. Puts me in the mood for sushi.