It happened at sea: bittersweet memories of industrial tuna fishing

in #ecology6 years ago (edited)

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I travelled to French Polynesia to discover the fishers' life, work, and interactions with the megafauna.
It litteraly changed my life. It is hardly describable, but here is a snapshot...


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Squids coming up at night, lost in the waves created by the ship.

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The opah - or salmon of gods, Lampris guttatus.

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A 400kg blue marlin, Makaira nigricans.

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Huge crowds of seabirds are visible in the middle of the sea, they actively dive to feed.

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My subject: predation by toothed-whales on already-caught tunas. Fishers describe pilot whales as their true nightmare... Really?

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The biggest swordfish and marlins are rarely brought back alive but when they are, they need to be rapidly killed: the fishers saw their head off.

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Strong and happy, fishers I met are doing their extremely hard work with a big smile on their face.
They have the power.

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Stay tuned, we will talk about sharks and longliners again.

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6000 tons , 25 millions euros a year.

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The yellowfin tuna is shaking with spams as the fisher "humanly" spike the brain and kill the nerves. In a hurry, he will gut and bleed it.

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It is almost 6pm. 6 hours of fishing left for the day.

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Parfois, je lève la tête et regarde mon frère Océan avec amitié. Il feint l'infini, mais je sais que lui aussi se heurte partout à ses limites, et voilà pourquoi, sans doute, tout ce tumulte, tout ce fracas.

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Anti-bird garlands were off.

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Lucky pelagic stringray: no tail-cutting nor smash killing on the boat shell.

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Hauling back the line lasts at least 8 hours.

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what a waste.JPGIf only dragonfishes could fly away from fishing boats: thousands are killed in silence -not reported at all.

What is there to add ?
It was wonderful and horrible at the same time.

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