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...
Squids coming up at night, lost in the waves created by the ship.
The opah - or salmon of gods, Lampris guttatus.
A 400kg blue marlin, Makaira nigricans.
Huge crowds of seabirds are visible in the middle of the sea, they actively dive to feed.
My subject: predation by toothed-whales on already-caught tunas. Fishers describe pilot whales as their true nightmare... Really?
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.
Strong and happy, fishers I met are doing their extremely hard work with a big smile on their face.
They have the power.
Stay tuned, we will talk about sharks and longliners again.
6000 tons , 25 millions euros a year.
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.
It is almost 6pm. 6 hours of fishing left for the day.
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.
Anti-bird garlands were off.
Lucky pelagic stringray: no tail-cutting nor smash killing on the boat shell.
Hauling back the line lasts at least 8 hours.
If 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.
The opah - or salmon of gods, Lampris guttatus.
A 400kg blue marlin, Makaira nigricans.
Huge crowds of seabirds are visible in the middle of the sea, they actively dive to feed.
My subject: predation by toothed-whales on already-caught tunas. Fishers describe pilot whales as their true nightmare... Really?
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.
Strong and happy, fishers I met are doing their extremely hard work with a big smile on their face.
They have the power.
Stay tuned, we will talk about sharks and longliners again.
6000 tons , 25 millions euros a year.
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.
It is almost 6pm. 6 hours of fishing left for the day.
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.
Anti-bird garlands were off.
Lucky pelagic stringray: no tail-cutting nor smash killing on the boat shell.
Hauling back the line lasts at least 8 hours.
If only dragonfishes could fly away from fishing boats: thousands are killed in silence -not reported at all.It was wonderful and horrible at the same time.