Monday’s are the worst. We’ve had a pretty cold and rainy weekend here and I felt we could all use a good steamy monday morning video. In this video Julie Klaz goes deep sea fishing with Captain Geza on the Akua in the waters off Kona in search of mahi-mahi and marlin.
This video could be considered borderline NSFW, there’s no nudity, but some interesting camera angles. Not that I’m complaining.
What do you do if you’re using light equipment and you hook into a monster fish? These guys decide to daisy chain three rods together to gain the upper hand on a nice size marlin. I have heard of this technique before, but never seen it in action until today. Check it out!
Australian fisherman Darren Tierney thought it would be a good idea to jump out of his boat to spear a massive marlin that was swimming nearby. After an hour of being dragged around by the marlin, Tierney realized he wasn’t in a very good place. He was alone, in the middle of the ocean, a mile from his boat. Lucky for him, there were some fishermen near enough to hear his cries and he was taken back to shore with his fish.
It’s pretty much common knowledge now that many of the worlds greatest fish are in low supply thought the world. It’s not really surprising though, fish like swordfish and marlin taste great, and people love to eat. Eventually things need to change though, or species like marlin will be fishing to extinction. Enter, Take Marlin Off The Menu, a group of concerned citizens who want to make sure that doesn’t happen. How? By taking marlin off the menu of course! It’s an idea so simple, it may just work.
Why stop eating billfish?
1. Marlin populations throughout the world are being wiped out by commercial overfishing. Most marlin mortality is a result of incidental bycatch, in which marlin are caught by commercial fishermen targeting tuna, swordfish, and other types of fish. With millions of hooks and many miles of nets in the water, marlin and other billfish don’t stand a chance.
2. Marlin and other billfish populations are not sustainable based on current demand. Their decline is being fueled by the demand for marlin meat among consumers, which corresponds with the overall growing demand for seafood both in the United States as well as throughout the world. Unlike catfish and tilapia and other “farm-raised” seafood, marlin can’t be farm-raised, and therefore can’t keep up with the demand. Besides, farming top ocean predators actually results in a net loss of available seafood because the diets required to rear carnivorous fish are comprised mostly of wild-caught fish. It would be analogous to raising lions or tigers in pens for human consumption.
3. Marlin may be harmful to eat. Marlin and billfish often contain unhealthy levels of mercury and other toxins that may be harmful to humans who regularly eat marlin, billfish and other large fish predators.
Works for me, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten marlin before!
While getting ready to publish this story I realized that we haven’t had any original Fishing Fury editorial for 2009 which makes this the first! What an amazing start to the year!
Kim Bain-Moore has been called the First Lady of Fishing after securing her name in history as the first woman to fish the Bassmaster [...]