fishing trip

On Friday, Miller took us out on a fishing trip. We went outside the Atoll! It was beautiful, although a bit rough. It was nice to see the Atoll from the other side.

Fishing in the refuge is very restricted. Only island residents can fish, there are only a certain number of trips allowed to be taken each year, each trip can only take a certain number of fish and the fish must be used for consumption on the island.

Also, we were not able to use rods and reels! We had to use hand lines. I had never seen this before, it was quite interesting. And hard!!

Here is one of the hand lines set up off the stern. The end in the water has a big lure. This end is tied to the boat and then hooked to the rail with an elastic band. When the fish is on, the elastic band snaps and you have to pull the fish in - by hand!
Luckily, Weenih was on board to do most of the pulling. Here, he is pulling in the first fish. Miller is getting ready to gaff the fish and bring it on board.


We ended up with two fish for this trip. One weighed 24 lbs, the other 64!!

Greg and Toby with the smaller fish.

Afterwards, the fish had to be weighed and measured.



And then sliced.

Greg enjoys some Sashimi dock side. It doesn't get much fresher than this!