How do I learn the art of bantering?

Hi Dutchy,
Oh wow, I can't even imagine 115 degrees and such loss of life! It's all so sad. Are the winds still strong?

I"m still blown away by what your son does....300 TONS!!?? I wonder where all that good Australian tuna goes, because ours here in B.C. seems to come from Thailand or somewhere.

Hubby - having lived in Australia in the 70's for a couple of years is wanting me to ask you if you've been to Kangaroo Island?

Dianne

I have been to KI a couple of times, if that counts.

Hi Dianne,
Since those extremely hot days we've had some very nice days, usually between 80 and 90 degrees. Four fires are still burning at present and could be causing problems over the next couple of days as the temperatures are rising and the winds are getting stronger.

So you won't worry about me, I live well over 500 miles from the Victorian fires, nevertheless our hills nearby consist of similar terrain and are equally as dry, so one naked flame and we'll face the same consequences as our neighbouring State!

I certainly have been to Kangaroo island Dianne, it is not all that far from where I live. A good hours drive down the coast and I'll catch the ferry and voila we're there. It is quitte a scenic place and draws lots of tourists, even the QEII on its last voyage here, dropped its ancher off the coast as they don't have mooring facilities for such a giant ship. It also called in at Adelaide and I went to have a look at it.

Son is still busy fishing and has caught quite a bit up to now but has more to get. Weather has been good with relatively calm seas.

Hope you weather has improved too. Cheers for now.

Wabbit you sneaked in under my guard, did you fly or caught the bus to Kangaroo Island?

Skipping to the not so pleasant - my bus. partners son is a captain, rising in status. But for a while he signed up on a tuna catching ship. Freaky tuna battings by sportsmen - he quit.

Hi ossobuco, I don't follow you, what was so unpleasant about catching Tuna? I've been out on the boats as well, all I can say is, it was damn hard work but the rewards were great.

My business partner's son was hired as a big tuna fishing captain where the owner orchestrated a batathon, that is treating incoming flung tuna as baseballs.
Not a small event.

Huh? How much does a tuna weigh? Some baseball....how big is the bat?
Dianne
Bathy

Ossobuco, they obviously didn't know the first thing about Tuna catching. A Tuna should never be BRUISED as the fish becomes useless! Our Tuna is treated with kids gloves, just the slightest bruising and they will be rejected by the Japanese where all our Tuna is exported to. We catch our Tuna in big nets, as big as a football field, and tow them back to the Tuna farms off our coast. Here they are kept alive and fed on pilchards until they reach the required length and weight ready to go to the Japanese markets. Anything up to a dozen large Japanese freezer boats will anchor offshore and convey the Tuna back to Japan after they have been carefully slaughtered and gutted. Our method of farming Tuna has been copied in Europe and Mexico but not anywhere as succesful as we do it here. What the market will do this year is anybody's guess as Japan is in deep financial woes and only time will tell if we can shift our catch succesfully. I'm not involved in the Tuna Industry but my son has for the past 25 years so I've been close to the action and have a fair idea what goes on.

Ferry, and flew.

A couple of friends actually run a motel and do bus tours there.

Ferry is cool, but I HATED trying to back my car onto the damn thing! I drove a superbug at the time, with terrible rear vision.

The other time we flew over for a huge party.

Lovely place to visit......living there would be another thing, I think.

Must agree with you wabbit , nice place to visit but I prefer to stay on the mainland. I think you may need a driver's test if you couldn't back your car onto the Sealink ferry.

Dianne, just had phone call from son, caught his 300 tons of Tuna and is heading back to port, should be home within the next three days. Will travel up there next month myself for a spot of fishing.

Cool! Too bad we Canucks don't get a taste of this tuna. What will you be fishing for when you go next month?

Dianne

Mainly three types of sea food Dianne. Firstly our most delicious table fish, The King George Whiting, very popular here but getting rapidly to expensive to buy at between $50 and $58 per kilo. The second one is Gar Fish also very tasty but like Whiting getting up in price unfortunately. The third fish we go after is Snapper, also nice to eat. As I said previously we're never short of seafood and that includes plenty of prawns, oysters and the occasional lobster. We're fortunate that our son keeps us supplied whenever we run low otherwise seafood would never be on the menu, just to expensive these days.

Sounds lovely, Dutchy. Seafood is one of our favorite foods too; sadly much of it is beyond our budget. We can fish for prawns in our 'backyard' literally (we haven't mastered the art yet - only got a dozen last summer....the dang trap never ends up where we want it even with a depth sounder) we have oysters on our beach but finally have had enough of them. I would love to catch snapper, halibut, any deep sea fish. That's one of my dreams - to go deep sea fishing on a charter out on Vancouver Island. I grew up catching lake trout and always out fished my Dad...caught my first big trout at 7. But I don't like gutting them. Do you do that or let someone else fillet them?

Filleting Whiting or Gar fish is an art Dianne and something I've never mastered! My son is a wizard of course and never guts any fish! Fillets them strait of the bone with no bones attached. I've tried it but takes me to long and I waste to much flesh so my son won't let me do that anymore. I've timed him and have seen him fillet a 40cm whiting in 10 seconds flat with nothing wasted. Here is my son filleting some freshly caught Whiting at home. In the background his dive-boat we usually use for open sea fishing.

Nice photo, Dutchy. It is an art and I'm sure your son makes it look so simple eh? Nice boat. I want some downriggers but hubby won't spring for the cost of them. He isn't that interested in fishing. Would rather sit in his chair at the stern of our boat (lazy butt) and leave operating the boat to me, which is fine. I assume your son uses downriggers, or something else to catch these fish?
(This is turning into a fishing thread )
Dianne

Boat is one of his work horses used mainly for tuna farming, you can see some of the air-cylinders on the deck used by the divers, when they descend into the tuna farms for inspecting the fish and the nets.

Some predators like, sharks, seals and dolphins have a habit of invading the farms and they have to be removed. That TV documentary 'Tuna Cowboys" will show you what I mean.

I have a video here and a series of photo's taken some years ago when they had a shark in their farm which made headlines all over the Country. The monster was nearly 18 feet in length, a diver had to enter the farm and shoot the beast with one shot. If I can find the photo's I'll post one. Anyway, the aftermath was, the Government brought in Legislation and made "The Great White Shark" a protected species!!

When we go fishing I'm the one using the downrigger, son doesn't need one, he just uses a handline and hauls them in quicker than I can! I suppose experience does that, his fingers feels when a fish is nibbling his bait, one jerk and another bites the dust.

You're right this has turned into a fishing thread.

You know, I can't find that Tuna Cowboy link you had on one of the posts...I have looked through the posts here but didn't see it. If it isn't too big of a hassle, could you send it again?

I'm still fascinated about the whole idea of tuna farming. If I ever go to Australia I'll have check them out.

We have oyster farms here, and the predators seem to be mostly starfish who glom onto the oysters. I think the biggest market for them is also Japan. That tiny island sure eats a lot of fish eh?

Dianne
Bathy

Hi Dianne, good to see you, hope you had a good weekend.

You know what I can't remember that I did provide you with a link other than the name of the documentairy. Did stick the title 'Tuna Cowboys" in Google and found a lot of references.

One of them http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3806102/%5BNGC%5D_TZ_-_Tuna_Cowboys.divx seems to give you the opportunity of down loading it. Have a look at it and see what you think.

If by any chance you can down load it, my son is the skipper who is seen talking on the radio to the pilot of the spotter plane overhead, he is referred to as Harpo his nick name. His partner and boss and boss is the old skipper in the big vessel named the D3.

Should you ever visit these shore I'll get my son to give you a first hand tour of the tuna farms.

Had an ok weekend, things being what they are with my crazy daughter and trying to recoup from chemo Feb. 19. The last one! Thanks for asking, and for providing the link. Hope I can figure out how to download it - if not, my hubby's friend can.

That's sweet of you (your son) to offer a tour of the tuna farm, should we ever visit! Likewise if you ever come to these shores.... we'll show you what B.C. oyster farming is about. And even sample some eh?
Dianne
Bathy

Hi Dutchy,

The website keeps telling me 'can't display....' for some reason. I will try again or google tuna farming & try to find another site.