Public Address | Cafe | Cracker: Gone Fushin’

steve somervell

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:05:03 +1300

All fish caught on Reel Deal Charters are brain spiked and die instantly .They are all placed in salt ice & upon request , filleted/skinned and vac packed for freshness. We respect species unfortunate enough to be beneath us in the food chain and appreciate every one of them.We also respect…

Peter Elliott

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:42:53 +1300

When the Gulf is firing and the water is as clear as that and friends are on board with you, gannets diving make the processional music for your entrance into heaven.

Hilary Stace

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:03:22 +1300

Quote from Temple Grandin (autistic designer of slaughterhouses) in the movie Temple Grandin, 'nature is cruel, but we don't have to be'.

andrea quin

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 01:30:22 +1300

Christopher, you'd have to ask others that — some people seem to like "releasing" them, others stuff them, others measure them. My point, I think, was that that seemed like an awful lot of fish for 3 people to eat but Damian has said he gave much of it away…

Jacqui Dunn

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:15:21 +1300

Andrea didn't suggest not eating them, but the photo of the lines of dead schnapper might have made her wonder how big an appetite each of the fishers had. Also, maybe, how often they might go out fishing.

Made me a bit queasy too, as you'll see from my posts.

christopher brown

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:54:06 +1300

Errr... why else would you catch snapper if not to eat them Andrea? Would you prefer we all just bought our fish (if we're rich enough) at the fish shop from the long line ocean rapists whose catch limit is measured in tonnes?

Jacqui Dunn

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:28:03 +1300

I can so appreciate the desire to "drama" it up a bit. Have to admit to a bit of that myself on the odd occasion :)

Damian Christie

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:30:39 +1300

Ha, yeah I probably gave that impression because it sounded more dramatic, you know, reels screaming, gannets plummeting, fish flapping, all go... so my fault there, I'd forgotten about the PETA wing :)

Jacqui Dunn

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:02:16 +1300

Thanks for that info, Damian. (Sorry, spelled your name wrong previously – hate that!) I read that bit of your post again re the flapping fish and it did sound as if you just hauled them in and threw your line back in anew. So glad you didn't do that!

Jackie Clark

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:00:01 +1300

An interesting link. I must admit that for crayfish, putting them in the freezer where they go to sleep seems less cruel.

Damian Christie

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:21:46 +1300

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, Damien, but "a quick death" – quoting Raymond Francis – is not something you or your mates gave the fish you caught.

We spike all the fish as soon as they're on board, then chuck 'em in the chilly bin. There was one fish that…

Jacqui Dunn

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 18:18:50 +1300

Um. Are we talking at cross purposes here, Martin? I don't have a problem with people killing what they want to eat – just that it would be better, for killer and killee, if it wasn't a long, slow death.

Martin Lindberg

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:31:55 +1300

...we would do ourselves a service by acknowledging that when we eat a bit of meat, it came from a living being

And what better way of doing that than to catch and kill yourself what you eat? Like with fishing.

Jacqui Dunn

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:16:10 +1300

Hahaha, oh yes. Reading Bill Bryson's "The Short History of Nearly Everything" can certainly bring a person down to earth (and beyond). The billions and zillions of little beings that have each one of us as their earth. I tried to point this out to my niece, but she shrieked.…

Islander

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:51:19 +1300

Much much older than anything else too. Can live almost anywhere (including our guts.) Bacteria as a mass outweigh every other lifeform and will be the last form of life to die out.

Bacteria rule, OK?

Sacha

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:23:27 +1300

More of em than us, too

Sacha

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:23:04 +1300

Funny how we've created a food chain that has us at the top of it, rather than bacteria

Jacqui Dunn

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:15:41 +1300

I recall being on a boat, travelling to an island to do some filming. One of the grips had caught a lovely pink schnapper and had it swimming around in a holding tank on the boat. He planned to eat it for his breakfast (the grips in this particular film…

Sacha

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:50:21 +1300

The parallels with a certain discussion about family size are intriguing..

andin

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:29:34 +1300

suicidal fush eh!

stressed or depressed. Does the flesh taste different, as its said it does with animals at slaughter.
Perhaps we should ask the fusherman?

Joe Wylie

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 08:00:15 +1300

Fish only take baited hooks through folly, ignorance, or desperation. Their own laws prescribe the death penalty for doing so. Presumably this is a powerful deterrent, and is the reason why so many undersized – and ignorant – juveniles fall victim to the hook. To throw a fish back is…

richard

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 07:39:20 +1300

Catch and release has always struck me as wantonly cruel. It is probably a dozen years since I caught a fish (and also, by no coincidence a little over a dozen years since I was last a full-time resident of New Zealand) but I used to catch hundreds of fish…

Jackie Clark

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 05:33:10 +1300

I'm always intrigued by peoples' reactions to how we get our food. Am I cruel and callous for thinking that there's a food chain in nature, and that, like it or not, by dint of firepower and fishing rods, we're sort of somewhere near the top of that food chain?…

Islander

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 22:44:50 +1300

My whanau have always eaten flesh of various kinds (with the exception of one person who became a vegan at age 14. But, that's another -and sad- story.) What we've also done is kill what flesh we eat as quickly & compassionately as we can.
Iki spikes are really good -…

Jacqui Dunn

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:52:45 +1300

And anyway, I quite like this version of your saying:

You can't break eggs without making an omelette.

Jacqui Dunn

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:50:29 +1300

And you can’t eat a fish without killing it.

I realize that. Probably sounded far too holier-than-thou, and could have made my point without the lecture. It's OK to kill to eat – it's the catching and leaving the catch struggling on the deck or the bottom of the boat,…

Martin Lindberg

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:17:19 +1300

Will they stay fresher if you let them drown in air?

Not really, no. Today the common practice is to use an Iki spike. There will still be some flapping around though, which may be what Damian referred to.As they say, you can't make an omelette without breaking the eggs.…

Jacqui Dunn

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:00:24 +1300

I don’t particularly like putting in a downer. It was obviously a super day for all concerned – and I can appreciate that and the photos – but the bit about the flapping fish in the bottom of the boat got to me. Why not kill them quickly? Will they…

andin

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:55:22 +1300

How about animals in an art installation
Its open till Feb 2011 and those who want to can pay to stay a night with the reindeer who eat the amanita muscaria mushrooms and the birds and um other creatures. And if you want to, you can…

linger

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:35:28 +1300

a good life, a quick death and a meal for me

Um, we should all aspire to end that way?
("... with a nice Chianti and fava beans")

Danielle

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:24:20 +1300

The judgeypants! It burns!

Jacqui Dunn

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:18:52 +1300

a good life a, quick death and a meal for me

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, Damien, but "a quick death" – quoting Raymond Francis – is not something you or your mates gave the fish you caught. Shame on you if that's the case....you have a responsibility, if you…

Hilary Stace

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 11:00:01 +1300

But Stephen, you are a sentient human being exercising choice of occupation. The fish getting chomped by a bigger fish is more instinctive survival stuff.

But I think I will bow out of this discussion as none or us are likely to change our positions. And I don't want to…

Stephen Judd

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 10:27:08 +1300

Hilary, I kill them as soon as I land them.

Like most people who fish I've managed to hook myself and on the scale of pain I have felt it doesn't rate. I am confident it's a lot better than being progressivly chomped alive by a bigger fish.

Hilary Stace

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 10:12:18 +1300

My father loved fishing, which he managed to do about once a year on holiday, and occasionally caught a fish. Some of my earliest memories are watching distressed fish flapping and dying on the rocks. I understand about fishing being a great contemplative experience, and that catching and eating fish…

Raymond A Francis

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:59:23 +1300

I am with Islander on this, a good life a, quick death and a meal for me
And for all the tut tuters unless you are dedicated vegetarians (I hope those are not leather sandals) where do you think the fish/chicken/meat comes from
And what about the rights of vegetables…

Stephen Judd

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 08:56:49 +1300

Hilary: catch and release is just torturing fish for fun. I really enjoy fishing, definitely for the thrill of the hunt as well as all the bullshit about solitude and nature and the water, but fishing for food is the only way I can justify it to myself.

Anyway, every…

Stephen Judd

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 08:51:28 +1300

Kahawai take about 4 years to grow to 30cm long and be "mature". A 60cm kahawai might be much older. It doesn't take many big kahawai being caught to create a situation where numbers crash.

Purse seiners clean up kahawai.

andin

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 07:45:14 +1300

nice catch and pretty pics, I've heard the Hauraki can be like a millpond on the right day.
What was the boat? I ask out of voyeuristic interest. One of the reasons I came back to NZ was a boat. A Pelin Gullwing design. Funny thing is I'll never get…

Islander

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 01:33:19 +1300

Hilary – I find a deliberate catch&release for a targeted species kind of fish torture.
I dont often fish for sea-run trout now, but I do make sure that what I catch & kill is a killable AND EDIBLE fish. (The screech might seem strange, but there are also fish you routinely…

Anonymous Author

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:26:55 +1300

The act of reeling them in is certainly thrilling and means good eating. However, the downtime on the boat/rocks/beach – and its efficient use thereof – is also a vital part of the experience. Your post reminds me of an adage which has held me in good stead on more than…

Hilary Stace

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:45:20 +1300

So you are unlikely to turn vegetarian then?

Damian Christie

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:36:35 +1300

Unless I also stop buying fish from the supermarket, which ain't gonna happen, there's no way I'm not coming home with a feed :)

Hilary Stace

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:26:20 +1300

I'm sorry but someone has to ask the question and mention the ethics.

Islander

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:29:42 +1300

We target fish by environment & location. At Moeraki, which is the area I know best for sea-fishing, you'd expect greenbone/marire round the reefs; groper would be in the known groper holes, and the major blue cod patches have known by locals for a looong time (and arnt disclosed.) Of course,…

BenWilson

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:50:20 +1300

Yes, there's a difference between occasionally fishing, and only catching to your limit on an amazing day, and doing it every day right up to the letter of the law, probably selling the excess. After dozens of goes where 2 or 3 legal sized fish is the work of 8…

Damian Christie

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:39:23 +1300

That’s what fishing is to me, far more than the ‘product’, which would usually be cheaper at a shop, once you count lost labor and all the boat/bait/tackle costs.

Yeah, I’ve definitely put more into it than I’ve got out of it over the years. Monday’s trip would’ve cost about…

Kyle Matthews

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:28:08 +1300

Sunfish and a right whale? That's about 20 fishing trips worth of incredibly cool. The charter guy will be able to use this trip as marketing for years even if he never sees either of those again.

BenWilson

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:05:32 +1300

Warmed my heart to read your fishing adventure on Facebook, even nicer to get the full story. I don't grudge the profligacy – fresh snapper will always all get eaten.

And the experience! That's what fishing is to me, far more than the 'product', which would usually be cheaper at…

Tony Kennedy

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:49:10 +1300

Damien and Andrea's conversation epitomise all the is good about PA (oh, and the makeover)

andrea quin

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:33:43 +1300

I know, it is a tough one. In some ways it seems to epitomize sustainability to go out on a little boat with a rod and catch your own dinner. Certainly many of the problems with fishing are avoided in this way — no long-lines, no trawling, no dolphin by-catch.…

Damian Christie

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:00:45 +1300

@Andrea – that was between three of us, so nine each. Which granted, is still a lot of fish for one household, so I dropped one over to the neighbour, and a couple to friends. Not everyone has the time and wherewithal to go out fishing, but I think everyone…

Islander

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:57:02 +1300

Interesting dialectual variation – south we call that exciting melee of fish & birds & predators 'a works': they're commonest with the huge shoals of kahawai we used to get...

andrea quin

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:45:02 +1300

Nice fish and all that, but the profligacy of it all makes me a little queasy. Are you fishing up to your catch limit just so you can eat snapper for breakfast?

Public Address

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:45:02 +1300

Discussion from blog post.