After losing my dog Cabo to old age 6 years ago, I decided it was time to get a new puppy. I picked out a little girl King Charles spaniel.

Nature or nurture... where do my mad fishing skills come from?

I wondered if that Christmas morning feeling of excitement in my gut was akin to what adoptive parents feel when they go to the orphanage to pick up the newest member of their family? As an adopted child, I have many such questions and far few answers.

The breeder said the puppy wasn’t able to leave with me that day, but that she would be mine so long as I paid a deposit. She went on to explain that puppies go through 5 critical stages of development and it is very important that they remain with their mother and litter-mates until they are 49 days old as recommended by studies. Moreover she said, that a stable environment between 21-23 days of age is crucial. If not, they will exhibit widespread behavioral and cognitive issues, they will not establish satisfying social ties and they will end up fearful and anxious. We know that human babies also imprint on their birth mothers and suffer a similar negative outcome if separated from her before the age of 5. Important information that is all too often withheld from expectant mothers when they are looking to adopt out their child, (the woman is told that it is in the best interest of the child to be with a married couple who can give the child everything that she cannot). It has been studied and noted that no one can replace what only a birth mother gives to her child. In my opinion, the natural mother would need to display blatant and negative characteristics that would cause harm to her baby before determining that the infant should be taken into care and even then, an open adoption is the lesser of evils.

The Primal Wound book

Diamonds in the Ruff – Developmental Stages

Adopting a puppy was more about my need than the puppy’s, and I couldn’t help but notice how similar the adoption criteria was for adopting a puppy or a person.
Historically (ancient Rome), and even in modern times, adoption has always been a sordid affair. I would have thought that since the first Adoption Laws were papered in Massachusetts in 1851, called The Adoption Of Children Act, that we would have had all the kinks ironed out by now. Not so. My Human and Civil Rights are being ignored for what the public views as an acceptable social solution to a “problem”. Knowing your own name is the most basic of rights. It’s laughable to think that I’m not permitted the most basic of truths that everyone else takes for granted. I have read that perhaps this is where the term don’t ask, don’t tell was first coined.

The final decree of an adoption is to “terminate all legal relationships between the adopted individual and his natural relatives, so that the adopted individual is a stranger to his former relatives.” This in itself is a highly flawed practice in my opinion. While Adoption Law can give a child a new legal identity, it can’t give the child a new biological identity. They didn’t factor in that you can’t sign away psychological, emotional, spiritual ties to one another (as much as people try to do exactly that). I still have blood ties that make up 50percent of who I am as a person. “Traits”- that have traveled down to me through time from my ancestors. In my mind, this makes it wrong for my parent(s)to deny me my history, after all, no one generation, has the right to deny the next generation its heritage.

The other 50 percent of who I am is molded by my life experience and environment. I wonder if my gift for fishing comes from nature or nurture?

As an Adopted person I’m not a good fit in either world so I toe the line in both. This tight rope act has made it confusing for me to know myself as a whole person (So many conflicting traits).

So, I was destined to a life of emotional turmoil on July 10, 1967 when, on my unceremonious arrival into the world at St. Mary’s Hospital in Montreal Canada, my birth mother made a prompt exit. She (I don’t know my birth mother’s name) wanted to marry him (I don’t know my birth father’s name), but they did not practice the same religion, so the union was not to be, as it just was not done in those day’s. My birth mother was between a rock and hard place since her parents, my maternal grandparents, did not support her plan, which was to keep me and marry my birth father. To further complicate the matter, my US born birth father was conscripted for service with the Armed Forces and could not come back for her.

With all the scars of a puppy that is taken away from its pack too soon, I was alone in the world and at the mercy of others when the Adoption Consent forms were signed 8 days later, thus robbing me of the potential opportunity to know unconditional love.

I cry for that little helpless babe who was handed off to strangers with no mother for protection. The Catholic Church decided for all involved, that God was the only protector I needed and so they baptized me twice for good measure. The first time was July 20th, 1967 in the city of Pointe Aux Trembles, Quebec. I was only ten days old at the time. It was likely that I didn’t make a fuss because the handlers often gave babies Phenobarbital to stop orphans from crying out for basic needs, as well as to sooth their separation anxiety. Imagine giving a baby with a body weight around 6lbs 13 ozs., drugs. The second Baptism would take place at St. John Fisher Parish in Pointe Claire Quebec some time later.

I don’t know anything about the first seven months of my life in Foster Care. No darling baby pictures with me all dressed in pink being pushed by my parents in a pram with balloons tied to the handle that read, “It’s A Girl” for my baby book. Thankfully I don’t recall any of it including the transition from foster care to home placement with my adoptive family on February 23, 1968. But I’m sure it was traumatic. How could it not? Even puppies cry all night after being separated from their litter-mates. This was the second major shift in my life all before blowing out the candle on my first Birthday cake, which by the way… Birthdays only serve as a reminder that I was not wanted. Not even a year old and I understood, rejection, loss, separation anxiety, trust issues, rejection, etc.

Our little Triad was complete. My biological mother, who felt like a phantom limb on one side of me, and my adoptive parents, on the other . My Swiss Cheese foundation, as adoptees sometimes call it, was not the best possible start in life. No one told my well-intentioned family, that you can’t raise an adopted child as if he or she wasn’t adopted. They are different. They know they are different. They feel different. No amount of love, will undo the damage done by the primal wound. The pain experienced goes all the way down to a cellular level.

Did you know that in Sarasota Florida it is illegal to sing in a public place while wearing a swimsuit? The bikini has had a checkered past dating back Millennia. Louis Reard named the bikini after an Atomic Bomb site called Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It has made waves ever since. Now, my understanding is that Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control is always a concern. My Hiroshima was the Captain’s girlfriend and her barely there, red bikini on a day’s tarpon fishing charter in Boca Grande in Southwest Florida. “The Tarpon fishing capital of the world.”

I was booked to fly fish for Tarpon along the more isolated park areas and flats. These magnificent large eyed, aerial fish can grow between 5-8 feet long, weighing in at between 80-280lbs. I stood at the Elephant Dock as the sun made its appearance, but my captain did not. I found another charter captain who was able to take me out, but it was jig fishing in the pass. Fishing jigs has been documented virtually throughout Boca Pass fishing history, but it isn’t without its controversy. The Pass is a bucket nearly 80 feet deep. An underwater highway for fish, bait and “mother” big sharks. So many fish gather here that they create a false bottom. While from above, it’s a highway of a different sort. A lot of boat traffic from every direction in a contained area called the Boca Grande Pass; Spanish for Big Mouth. I did hear a lot of yelling as huge Tarpon on the line from neighboring boats erupted up out of the water next to us. We throttled into reverse to ensure clear passage as its bulk came crashing back down next to our small boat. All the while, the bikini-clad first mate readied the gear. The physicality of her job and the lack of support from her outfit meant that there was a “whole lot a movin’ goin’ on”.

I’m from a cold part of the world so perhaps beach culture is lost on me. I believe that professional anglers have a uniform and it isn’t a string bikini. Professional women anglers have to face a daily problem of what to wear because there is a sexual aspect to dressing that men don’t have to deal with. Whatever we put on gives out a particular message that walks a fine line between professional or “Hubba! Hubba!”

I decided to investigate to see what is considered proper fishing attire for women these days via chat rooms and this is what I found out: hat, sun block, polarized lenses, bandana, bug spray, light weight shirt and long pants, boat shoes and fingerless gloves. Fishing with Cliff North West Fishing Blog wrote:” We would seriously love to see more women fishing, especially if they would do it at least partially naked (a bikini counts as partially naked right?)”

How can we expect to get more women and girls interested in fishing when the message that is being portrayed in the Industry is that we judge women based on being sexual in appearance rather than their intellectual ability and skill in the sport. The images and comments printed in fishing magazines, videos and the Internet have shifted from “homemaker” and “perfect mother” on a family fishing outing, to that of a “sexualized body” to promote product and entertain the male fishing audience. Way too many images of half naked girls with dead fish. They haven’t acknowledged the evolution of a woman’s new roll and progression into leadership positions in business, politics and sports.
Alongside controversies of the message being projected when professional anglers fish in bikinis, could be a lack of sensitivity surrounding how it may make other anglers feel when in the confines of a boat. (I don’t want to look at some girls butt all day.) Along with hazards from the gear on exposed skin, they should also worry about sun exposure. More than 3.5 million cases of skin cancer are diagnosed annually in the US. (It’s the most common form of cancer).

I was a million miles away in thought until the bell rang. As often does happen, a tarpon threw the jig, which in this case was a 6 oz. poured led weight. It rang the post next to my head, missing me by mere inches. It made me think that perhaps I should have added a crash helmet to my outfit, which is considered proper fishing attire (See above). We did end up releasing a nice size Tarpon that day before heading back to shore. Not a great accomplishment when you know that a typical 80 -day Florida season produces an average of 5,000 Tarpon landed.

I was asking my husband if he remembered where the pictures might be from this trip so I could post a trophy tarpon for you to see with this article, to which he replied….you mean the day we fished with the girl in the red bikini?

Kathryn@whatacatch.net

I was a year old when the Red Fisher Show hit the airways on Saturday afternoons on CTV. My parents must have set my playpen in front of the “tube” or CRT television (no flat screen back then) to watch the “Scuttlebutt Lodge”, the Tall Tale capital of the world. I grew up with dreams and big ideas. The excitement of possibilities. Not like my mother’s generation where you were what your husband did. There wasn’t anyone fishing who looked like me on TV to model myself after but I liked what Red Fisher was doing, so that was a start. He was ahead of his time. He featured a wholesome show that the entire family could enjoy. He promoted conservation as well as catch and release. My TV show, “What A Catch” became a reality in 2003. Quite an accomplishment when you know that only 16 percent of all writers, directors, producers, cinematographers and editors are women.

Finally young girls could see a woman angler on TV to model themselves after. Historically, many women have fished and had great successes in the sport off screen, but based on the images in print and TV, it wouldn’t appear that more than a handful of women were part of the industry. What we are seeing, for the most part, today however, are models posing as anglers. With only 3 percent of women in “clout” positions in telecommunications, entertainment, publishing and advertising, it is not surprising that the message and what sells is all about the body and little about mind and ability.

Media is enforcing the idea that as a woman fishing host, you need to be pretty, young and sexual rather than a great Angler. I had to take the path of an independent producer to avoid being caught up in that trend, but this had clear limitations.

The name Scuttlebutt if you didn’t already know, is Navy slang for gossip or rumors. The term corresponds to the colloquial concept of a water cooler in an office setting. Today’s water cooler is the Internet and the World Wide Web. It comes with a lot of the same high school tactics, except that people can’t see who they are being rude to or worse….

Over a billion people are on the Internet every day. “Media is the Message and the Messenger”, as Pat Mitchell calls it. Jane Fonda says that “media creates consciousness”. That consciousness is becoming socially and morally bankrupt because the people who create the media message are saying that sexual innuendo is more valuable than skill and talent. Do we really want this? I sure don’t. A sexual caste system is at play. I’m forced to admit that I don’t fit into the ” old boy’s club”; never did and didn’t try. A guy in a chat room commented; “how do you think she (the angler) feels being ogled by a bunch of anonymous onlinecreepers (no offense but dudes it is creepy). Would you stick around a sport if you got treated with disrespect all the time?”

Today anyone can say anything. Things that would not be said face to face. Things that sons would not say to mothers, brothers to sisters, husbands to wives, nor fathers to daughters. So why are we allowing it to be said at all, on the Internet? The Internet has outpaced current rules and regulations especially when it comes to obscenity. People try to do more and more shocking things to stand out by posting sexually offensive and demeaning content on my “water cooler” site called Facebook.

I suppose if I were an equestrian rider then the vast majority of my “friends” on Facebook would be horsy people, but I’m not. Most of my “friends” are hard-core anglers. Riders would not circulate pictures of women in beachwear on horses. So you can imagine my horror to be unwittingly exposed on a regular basis to images of scantily dressed women in provocative poses with fish. Why should someone feel the need to post a picture of a near naked woman riding the carcass of a dead shark as if it were a horse? So disrespectful on so many levels.

Like riders, anglers have a uniform and it isn’t a string bikini. As an avid angler, I use Facebook as a tool to foster new connections, find new opportunities, build new relationships with anglers from around the world. Suddenly I’m aware through this process that things that we once valued we don’t value anymore. I know that every time I scroll through the daily posts I’m forced to view content that I’m not comfortable with: inappropriate pictures and comments about barely dressed young girls posing sexually with dead fish. Two things I don’t like to see.

Gloria Steinem says. “A woman reading playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual”. Sadly, these sexualized images are what our youth are modeling from today; so different than the days of Red Fisher. Facebook is like the wild, wild, west where sexually explicit content is mixed in with legitimate angling content. I’m being forced to view images that I don’t want in my consciousness. The boys’ locker room pictures should be kept behind closed doors, shared privately, and not posted publically, where unsuspecting fishing enthusiasts get more than what they bargained for. Remember that these enthusiasts include wives, daughters, mothers and our youth.

I have tried to curate my Facebook experience to reflect the things, ideas and values that I stand for. I’ve tried to surround myself with like-minded people (based on their info page, lol), which is probably the opposite of what the Internet does best, which is to disseminate information from many points of view. I have written to “friends” to ask them to stop sending live feeds of lewd pictures and videos. I have unfriended, blocked, reported, and even turned Facebook off.

An hour passes…I turn Facebook back on (surprised I lasted that long).
Technologies are here to stay. I’m taking a stand for good values and principles with an emphasis on playing a role to support change. Jackson Katz, www.jacksonkatz.com/wmcd.html, Call to the Bystander Approach, encourages voyeurs to speak up to create positive change.
I can’t hear you.

Kathryn@whatacatch.net

I’m a big moviegoer and I enjoyed Brad Pitt’s hot new movie, “Moneyball”, about the Oakland A’s baseball team’s attempt to modernize America’s favorite pastime. What I took away from the film is that things can get tense when you take a traditional subject and try to modernize it. I have first hand experience with this concept, as I am witness to one of Japan’s possible favorite pastimes, Tenkara fishing being impacted by a similar journey. I thought it was an interesting comparison, the simplicity of hitting a ball and counting runs and the simplicity of casting a fixed line with one fly and counting fish. We never allow things to be that simple.

Craig Matthews from Blue Ribbon Flies describes this fly-casting genre as “Ease of Entry”. To the untrained eye, Tenkara is “a stick, some string and a fly”, and ease of entry is not how I would describe my attempt to introduce it to North American audiences a number of years ago.

I found myself trying to sell the virtue of this effective and efficient genre of fishing to no avail. I aired a show that had been shot in Japan for my series “whatacatch.net”; showcasing, sleepy mountain streams, small, ok very small, but beautifully marked, wild trout called; Iwana, Amago and Yamame, via a fringe technique of fly-fishing called Tenkara. As our group made the short trek toward the river, I was told about how the Samurai used this method of fly-casting in the Edo period (1603-1868) as did others. They went on to say that the Samurai found angling to be a good alternative to martial arts training during periods when they were not allowed to carry swords. The Tenkara rod of that time was a straight lightweight piece of Bamboo (cane).

The emphasis of Tenkara flies was not to be a perfect imitation as we endeavor, but rather achieving a perfect presentation with a sparsely tied reverse-hackle fly. Every Tenkara Master has his own fly and style. That’s why the Japanese playfully refer to “Tenkara…. as Ten Colors”. The way I see it, the flies are traded and valued like our baseball cards. Some Masters’ flies are perceived as being more valuable than others, because of their popularity; even though the differences between the flies may be lost on us.

The line was similar to what was used by Charles Cotton or Dame Juliana Berners, which is fun to think about. You see, many cultures have fished with fixed line over the ages; Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Russia, etc. Yes I was romanced by the idea of Samurai fishing in this way and I was excited to introduce Tenkara to North American audiences. “Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing”-Oscar Wilde. Tenkara fly-fishing, by definition, is the cornerstone of simplicity and efficiency. But it is human nature to make things more complex than they need to be. Like so many things in the sports fishing industry, the more you know, the more you realize there is more to learn. This runs true in my understanding of Tenkara. Tenkara USA’s, Daniel Galhardo shared his insights, which have pointed out to me that there are more layers to this sport and in my opinion, adds to its richness. Here is what he had to say:

“Tenkara was never practiced by samurai. This is a misconceived notion, one that people tend to cling on to for the romanticized view of Japan. Tenkara was the sole domain of commercial/professional anglers in the mountains of Japan. They were poor, illiterate and on the fringes of society, sustaining themselves by catching and selling fish. Unlike the samurai, who practiced a very different method of fishing (Ayu fishing) for leisure. It’s a myth that lives on and I’d hate for people to continue thinking that. Tenkara shouldn’t be capitalized, as it’s just a noun. Kebari is the name for “fly”, the more characteristic one is known as “sakasa kebari” where sakasa means reverse due to the reversed hackle. I would hesitate to say some masters’ flies are more valuable than others. Also, they are exchanged between one another, more similarly to business cards, not like baseball cards where they may have high value.”

Tenkara roughly translated means from heaven or from the sky and that is where my head was until the show aired. The Tenkara feature was airing at a time when viewers had an appetite for watching monster, man eating, goliath fish. Emails soon followed critical of the 24.06 minute show where I espoused the glories of these small, wild, mountain fish caught with 11 feet of line, one fly and a “wristy” presentation.

I left what had been a great angling experience in Japan, for Spain, where I improved my batting average (ratings) with a home run. Giant Wells Catfish. The Silurus Glanis were not indigenous to Spain. A German businessman illegally and intentionally transplanted a handful of German game fish into the Spanish reservoir some 20 years ago. Eating everything in sight to satisfy their growing bulk, the aliens decimated the local species. I caught a catfish almost twice my weight that day. A trophy. I cast the rod once and placed the rod in the holder until the bell rang. I set the hook and winched in a fish as long as a car. “A hollow accomplishment” I remember thinking.

Yvon Chouinard founder of Patagonia summed up how I was feeling when he wrote “Simple Gifts-Striving for Simplicity”, in Fly Rod and Reel Magazine, http://wwwflyrodreel.com/fly-fishing/spreading-tenkara”. We yearn for a simpler life based not on refusing all technology. I believe the way toward mastery of any endeavor is to work toward simplicity. Replace complex technology with knowledge, hard work and skill”. Mr. Chouinard is particularly fond of Tenkara fly-fishing for these reasons.

Clearly, I didn’t have a connection to the big fish in the way I’d had when fishing the mountain streams. Rod, line and fly as an extension of my arm gave me a connection to the fish’s world in a way I couldn’t experience by fishing long line from a river bank in deep, dark water via a rod holder. Times are changing and Gordon Wickstom tells us about this New Period in his writings:”Gordon Wickstom Fly Fishing History-The 6 Periods in America”, http://www.orvisnews.com/flyfishing/fly-fishing-history-partviii-6periods.aspx. He writes about Daniel Galhardo’s Company, Tenkara USA, saying,” …ancient Japanese Tenkara is perfect for this new period of gentleness, good humor and modesty. We may find ourselves living differently, living better with less, with a greater delicacy, clarity, balance and honesty”. He goes on to say, “fishing a fly on a clear, cold stream may well serve as a working model and inspiration for what we want. It shows forth the qualities- environmental, psychological, social, economic, and political; that we need to incorporate into our future. “This “New Period” as he calls it, has seen Tenkara achieve a cult status following in the US and Europe that wasn’t possible not so long ago. Not dissimilar to Willie Nelson performing a song by Cold Play called Back To The Start, a 2min stop-motion animated film emphasizing the importance of developing sustainable food systems, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amfsgt6rhos. There is a public consciousness afoot to do better.

Erik Ostrander, John Vetterli and Rob Worthing from Tenkara Guides LLC www.tenkaraguides.com, are doing their part.
In my excitement seeing Tenkara take off and understanding that “I’m no longer the only one “, I reached out to Daniel who is the founder of Tenkara USA, which launched in April of 2009. We were both consumed with learning about Tenkara at the same time; but clearly having our own unique journey of discovery. He understood early on that if Tenkara were to catch on in North America, then people would need rods and they would need to be affordable. Daniel works closely with Tenkara masters, in particular Dr.Hisao Ishigaki, who I have fished with as well.

The telescoping carbon fiber rods range from 10 feet to 14 feet 7 inches and come in softer or stiffer action. The traditional line is tapered, furled line or level line fluorocarbon. The line is attached directly to the tip of the rod; tippet, usually 5x or thinner, is attached to the end of the tenkara line. The length of the line is usually about the same as the rod. Like in western fly-fishing the line propels the weightless fly to its target with a slower, shorter stroke. The advantage of this set up is a delicate presentation with a line you can hold off the water and navigate difficult currents, with control and ease. The cast is performed with your index finger on top of the rod rather than a key grip. More wrist is used to cast the fly.

Daniel told me all about the journey he has been on with the birth of his company. All the people that have come into his life as a result of his love for Tenkara, like the day he enjoyed watching Joan Wulff learning how to cast one of his rods. We talked at length before he had to go pack for an event he was hosting for war vets. He explained that Tenkara fishing was a good thing for lots of diverse groups because people and kids can pick it up so quickly and not be intimidated. 
It could be the ticket to get young people back on the water. I remember thinking, that just like the invention of fiberglass brought fishing to the masses, so too will the affordable and easily learned Tenkara method. It has been my experience that many people are intimidated by the heavily aerialized line and complexities of traditional fly-casting techniques.

“Perhaps that is what happened to Ashley Valentine, otherwise known on twitter as, Tenkara Ashley from Bozeman MT. For her, fishing fell out of favor, but Tenkara pulled her back. She speaks this new lingo to go along with the Tenkara swagger. Ashly (who is being featured in an upcoming film about tenkara) tweets that her current favorite set up is the Ayu rod, Chris Stewart’s hi-vis level line and the Punk Rock Sakasa Kebari. 
So tenkara is out of the box and all kinds of weird and wonderful things are going to be done with it and to it. Ryan Jordan is proof of that. He is an avante garde Tenkara warrior, who is obsessed with the sport and wants to see how far he can take it. He wants the rods to be longer and stronger to be able to land bigger game fish and he likes the idea of weighted flies. Chris Stewart, otherwise known as Tenkara Bum, www.tenkarabum.com, brings his own flair to the sport as well. Daniel is ok with where people might take the sport, but for him the basis of his business will be forever steeped in the tradition envisioned by the Tenkara masters, as he sees it.

Not yet able to follow the musings of Yvon Chouinard, trying to follow a simpler path, I will pack my kit with all the appropriate technologies: Fly Rods, Spey Rods, Conventional Gear, Tenkara Rods, along with all my favorite flies. These are all just tools we use to get to the same result…to catch a fish worth talking about so we can let him go to catch another day.

Kathryn@whatacatch.net

The recent passing of a friend from my childhood (and the first of my peers to die) has me doing something I try not to do…looking back instead of forward. I remembered that our school built a time capsule. In most cases a time capsule is a method of communicating something with people who unearth it at a future date. I started to compile a list of all the amazing advances that have taken place since we sealed the box of well, “basically junk”.

Today we can travel to Mars. Back then, I couldn’t have imagined that Pluto would one day no longer be considered a planet! I had built such a lovely replica in science class. Bank ATM’s, TV remote controls, the Internet, are just a few more of the numerous advances that help make our lives “better.”

Each generation has a tendency to take advances for granted and in short order. We don’t think anything about how we all carry around our own portable smart phones. We call people with a push of a button and the phone knows the whereabouts of every Starbucks. Gone are the days of the green, pink or yellow rotary dial phone that lived in your mothers’ kitchen with a cord long enough to use for jump rope.

I think one of the greatest advances in the 20th century is the therapeutical use of blood. Blood Safety in the Age of Aids, written by Eric A.Fieldman and Ronald Bayer, reminds us of something that most of us take for granted. The importance of Blood products. Did you know that som
eone in Canada needs blood every second according to the Canadian Blood Service website?

In the US, each year about 3.6 million people receive blood transfusions regulated by the FDA. Americans donate about 12 million units of blood, which is then processed into 20 million blood products; (according to the FDA website). That includes what is needed for our favorite wrinkle preventer injectable.

“Blood has been viewed as the apogee of purity and the nadir of filth; cited as both the basis for unity and justification for war; analyzed as a gift that brings life and a source of death.” Fieldman and Bayer report that the healing use of blood inevitably would have unintended side effects; unfortunately along with curative powers, flow dangerous pathogens that make blood and its components a medium for disease transmission.

Contaminated Haemophilia blood products were a serious public health issue during my school age days with dire outcomes. The scandal reads like a mystery novel. Accounts of how companies failed to conduct tests against viral hepatitis (increasing the risk of the plasma also containing HIV) ended up in our time capsule from reports in the newspapers of the day.

A profound reminder for us today! The inquiry/investigation into the blood system at that time, found the parties negligent and lacking transparency. A case of doing too little, too late and in some cases doing nothing at all. How then, could a modern wealthy society not fix a problem entirely, once it was clear that people were dying from contaminated blood ?

Agencies sold off inventories of tainted blood when they should have known it was contaminated. In April of 2001, The Supreme Court of Canada found the Canadian Red Cross guilty of negligence. But the plaintiffs who received tainted blood and their partners who soon became infected as well, through sexual contact wouldn’t enjoy compensation because most would die in the years leading up to a settlement. Intrigued by how this immoral event could happen in North America, I reviewed the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry set up in Oct 1993. What I took away from the literature was that in the face of uncertainty, both action and inaction had potential costs. In the end, the concept of “acceptable risk” was coined. In my opinion, a foundation for justifying decisions based primarily on legality rather than morality. Paul R. Hunter and Lorna Fewtrell define Acceptable Risk in a 19 page paper on the subject. They describe the topic as being “extremely complex and location-specific”.

If you are wondering, if we still have a problem with the blood supply, it would appear to me that we do. The local stake holders, who make decisions on our behalf (assuming consent), hide behind acceptable risk principles that oftentimes have a lot more to do with the business of the blood supply, rather than the certainty of completely ridding the blood supply of pathogens. Like most of you I believed that Aids was no longer in our blood supply. The CDC lists HIV transmission through blood products. Rather than fixing the problem, they decide on our behalf, the amount of contamination that, in their opinion, is tolerable. Perhaps they feel the cost of reducing the risk and/or thoroughly fixing the problem would exceed the costs saved; and therefore, money would be better spent in other areas. Even the politicians have a say in deciding if the level of contamination is acceptable. The level of contamination is acceptable??

I thought donated blood in Canada was put through a shopping list of tests to screen for other major illnesses emerging in our new global society. This is not the case as shown on The Canadian Blood Services list on their website. Here is the list: Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis, AIDs, HTLV Virus, West Nile Virus and Blood Group. Chigas test will be done only if you are high risk. Parvo b19 Cytomegalovirus (cmv) and bacteria may be done.

A surprisingly short list, I’m sure you will agree. It would appear to me that, Acceptable Risk, along with Health Canada play Russian roulette with our lives. Health Canada’s role is to identify potential safety threats, assess and manage risks related to the Blood Supply. When they find a problem within this framework, they adapt based on the acceptable risks guidelines.

Say you were in a group of 10 thirsty people and you needed to drink water or you would die or be badly harmed. 10 glasses of water are put in front of you by XYZ organization, but one glass is contaminated. One of the group may die or be badly harmed if they are unlucky enough to get stuck with the glass of contaminated water. What would you do? Better yet, what if they knew, but didn’t tell you that one of the glasses was contaminated? The people who manage XYZ organization, based on acceptable risk, would be comfortable that someone from the group may die or get very much worse, as a result of drinking the contaminated water. And for the managers of XYZ organization, it is an acceptable risk, because most of the group will be fine. The group isn’t protesting so they must be ok with the statistical outcome. I know that given an option, most people would opt to have the contaminated water dumped out. After all, the empty glass could get topped up with a bit of water from the remaining 9 glasses. Everyone would have their thirst quenched without the addition of harm or death.

Health Canada is in charge of finding systems for detecting emerging pathogens. So when I inquired about what is being done to check for tick born illnesses and co-infections in our blood supply I expected action to protect the blood supply had already been taken. The answer took me back to the era of our school time capsule. Back then, the people who watched over the blood supply did far too little and in some cases nothing to protect people. What they were protecting was the bottom line.

Blood donors with say for example Babesia can be asymptomatic at the time of giving blood. The malaria-like parasite infects humans via ticks but also via the blood supply and can result in multi-organ failure and death. It can be detected on a blood smear under a microscope but like so many illnesses, the agencies in charge of blood safety don’t test donor blood for; Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis, Ricckettsia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme, B. Microti, Tickborn Relapsing Fevor, Tularemia and more. They are all acceptable risks. Incidence of transfusion-transmitted Babesiosis has increased over the past decade as explained in this link: http://dx.doi.org/10./016/j.amjmed.2011.03.009.

A letter, dated September 08, 2011, from a representative (who shall remain nameless) of The Canadian Blood Services National Feedback Team, wrote that “there are currently no blood suppliers in the world that test donors for Lyme disease.”
The Canadian Blood Services will even take donors who have Lyme disease but are symptom free and have had 4-6 weeks of treatments, as per the letter.

I’m not the only one worried about the “Acceptable Risk” method of healthcare. Dawn Irons wrote a Public Health Alert called “IDSA: Did They Change The Blade in Occam’s Razor”. A plea for change to the Chief Medical Officer of Health (PHAC) Sunday, Aug 7th 2011, stating inadequacies in blood draw storage and transportation.

My young self-view of the world wishes we would listen and act on the message delivered by my school, time capsule and improve the overall safety of the blood supply. Jordan Hospital is doing just that. They are screening blood for tick-borne organisms after cases were, not surprisingly, identified. There is a high rate of disease throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York.
My adult self-view of the world is that I wish I were younger and that the boy that I played my first game of spin the bottle with was still alive; his life mattered.

Kathryn@whatacatch.net

The greatest threat to sports fishing isn’t Global Warming, Over Fishing or Destruction of Habitat, but rather diseases people contract while working and recreating outdoors, that ultimately rob them of their health, career and lifestyle. Without people and revenue, the industry is in trouble.

Bacteria, Viruses and Parasites are at the root of the problem. They have invaded our bodies, homes, places of work and blood supply with deathly outcomes. Epic numbers of people are being eaten alive from the inside out resulting in a plethora of diseases. This silent epidemic is ravaging people with harrowingly complex groups of symptoms including arthritis, rhuematism, various auto-immune issues and cognitive problems which make recreating and working outdoors unlikely, if not impossible.

“A model pyramid scheme launched on us by the smallest of foes.”

When we go outside we don’t think much about being bitten by bugs. We grow up around them and they are nothing more than a nuisance, right? At least that’s what we were told as kids. But the truth is that “Half of the US population may have been exposed to tick-born illnesses and co-infections and don’t even know it”, according to Lyme disease expert, Dietrich Klinghardt MD, of Seattle, Washington.

Biting bugs are nature’s dirty needles, spreading disease. The United States CDC reflects in a report reviewed by “naturalnews.com” that 325,000 new people are infected every year with the tick born bacteria that literally infects virtually every tissue and organ in the body. It’s severe and debilitating, even causing death. The seasonal migration of 650 species of birds in North America plays a major role in the spread of tick born illnesses and co-infections. One point five million Canadians live with illnesses of unknown origin, (as reported by Christine Heffer in The Observer). That’s a lot of people not feeling up to participating in outdoor activities. That, in turn, equates to a lack of revenue and reinforces a downward trend in support of fresh water angling and river maintenance.

I believe that herein lies the possible answer to their mystery illnesses.

A number of seemingly unrelated factors, unique to the late twentieth century, are creating a perfect storm for infection. The rise of international travel, contaminated water supplies, increased use of day-care centres, the influx of refugee and immigrant populations from endemic areas, the return of armed forces from overseas, household pets, the popularity of exotic regional foods, the use of antibiotics and immuno-suppressive drugs, the sexual revolution, the spread of aids and inadequate screening of the blood supply are some of the factors at play.

“The spread of lyme disease is the most rapidly spreading vector-borne disease in the world”, stated Dr. Ernie Murakami as he referenced a prevalence map of the World Health Organization at a conference called the Spread of Lyme Disease. Tick born illnesses are the great imItators and are often mis-diagnosed as ALS, MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and more than 200 other possible illnesses. Lyme cases are grossly under reported and under diagnosed.
So if only 17 percent of people recall being bitten by a tick and therefore don’t seek treatment, then imagine how many people are compromised by the numerous viruses and single-celled bacterium living on plants, insects and animals in the great outdoors. They won’t know they have a problem until they do, which could be hours, weeks or even years after infection. Trying to diagnose these illnesses is difficult because symptoms can be similar and ever changing. Just as noteworthy is the idea that if you equally distributed the numbers of cases of parasitic infection, everyone in the world would have parasites. We are the equivalent of the Hilton hotel for bugs. They use up all the nutrition from our food and contribute nothing but harm to the host. If you start to reconcile stats for such illnesses it soon becomes clear that we need to do a better job of managing this seldom talked about pandemic.

“I have the sickness alright.” The burning, driving need to walk an Atlantic Salmon river. Every season, (except this year because my disease made me sick), I loaded up my high tech gear and pursued the king of all game fish, the Atlantic Salmon. Our pilgrimage, (mine and the fish), is to some buggy, historic, Atlantic Salmon ecosystem where the fish are returning to their natal river after feeding off Greenland. Entire towns are supported by the Leaper’s return. But something is very wrong. People like me are becoming sick working/playing outdoors. So sick, that we are unable to get out of bed. The consequences are far reaching, economically and socially.

It took 5 years for Doctors to understand that Bacteria, Viruses and Parasites were making me chronically ill. By this time I ended up with a deep seated infection that may or may not be cured.

Am I still an outdoorsman if I’m too sick to go outdoors? I don’t have all the answers, but what I do know is if you ignore the illnesses caused by Parasites, Bactria and Viruses, great damage will be done to the sport fishing world and our outdoor heritage.

Kathryn@whatacatch.net

I was telling my friend Sonya that I’m working on a show about Tuna and she forwarded me the following article she wrote 10 years ago. Thought I would pass it along for those people who are not aware of the history behind the Tuna Fishery in Nova Scotia.

by Sonja Englund
For my assignment, I decided that I wanted to do the bluefin tuna and my first stop towards that end was to contact my cousin Lisa’s husband Mike. Mike is doing his PhD in marine biology, he is doing his thesis on the salmon fishery but he has a lot of contacts in other realms as well. In fact, Mike was the only relative to visit me here on the island last year. Unfortunately, this was not a visit for my fantastic company, rather because he was working on a tuna study and needed a place to crash.

The study he was working on is actually very interesting and was the reason that I decided to do the bluefin. Apparently, although the scientists and fishermen know where the tuna can be caught at particular times of the year, they have never figured out their migration patterns and don’t know where exactly they go for the winter months. The idea behind the study was to catch tuna, attach satellite tags to them and release them. After awhile, these tags, which had a GPS tracking device in them, would detach themselves from the tuna, float to the surface and the satellites could pick them up and figure out where the tuna had gone. A wonderful idea in theory but apparently flawed in reality. Only one of the tags was recovered and that just off the Grand Banks. They figure that the tuna may have been caught and the fishermen just discarded the tags, or possibly that the fish themselves just went too deep. The tags they used could only stand up to so much pressure, so if the tuna went deeper than whatever thousand feet the tags were probably crushed. So, back to the drawing board to design a new tag that can handle the pressure. Mike will be traveling to California in the fall to tag some pacific tuna with the new tags.

Luckily, for me, Mike and Lisa had been planning to come to the island for a visit and I managed to talk Mike into taking me out to see the tuna boats and see if we could find a fisherman to talk to. But, I get ahead of myself. After partying all night, and eating a lovely salmon coulibiac, I sat Mike down and he filled me in on what he knew of the fishery, which off the top of his head was actually very impressive.

This is basically what he had to say. “Well, what they catch is whole tuna, caught with a rod and reel. Then they want to cool down the meat as much as they can. Because it’s a very powerful fish, all muscle and it builds up a lot of lactic acid and that can ruin the meat. They catch it for the Japanese to be sent to the sushi and sashimi market, we don’t really get it here. They cool the meat because the fishermen get a better price for better meat and the fattier the meat the better the price too. They can catch a 1000 lb. fish worth between 2 dollars a lb. and 40 dollars a lb., there’s a lot of variation in the meat.

It’s generally caught on a rod using bait like herring. Fighting the fish can take between 45 minutes and 2 hours. Then, while its still alive they revive it in the water to let it cool down naturally. They pull it behind the boat, then cut and bleed it. They cut the lateral arteries, which are down the lateral lines of the fish, and it will bleed out. They do this all while it is still in the water and this also cools the meat down. Here in PEI, they then bring the fish in to shore to take it out of the water, eviscerate it, saw off the head and tail (see picture on last page of assignment). They then put a piece of monofiliament, which is a heavy gauge fishing wire, down the backbone. This kills all the nerves so the fish won’t flop around and bruise the meat. Out somewhere, like the Grand Banks, the fishermen would do this all on the boat and then pack the fish in ice until they can get it to shore to a buyer.

Buyers generally gather on the docks, take a plug and tell the fisherman what they will pay for the fish. They then take the fish and put rice paper over the skin, to prevent grating and damage, fill the cavity with ice and pack it with ice in a big box and ship it, usually from Halifax to Boston. It is then flown directly to Japan and sold on the open market there within 24 hours of being caught.

Sushi markets in Montreal and New York do buy some tuna but the market is so small it’s almost negligible. Sometimes, when there is a Japanese holiday and the markets will be closed, people here don’t even bother fishing.
It always used to be Japanese buyers who bought the fish here but now they have some representatives. The Japanese were also very closed about what they were looking for and for years they wouldn’t even tell the fishermen what they were looking for. They’d just take a plug and stand there and talk in Japanese, decide what they’d give the fisherman and then give him whatever and the fishermen didn’t even know what they were looking for. Over time, however they kind of figured out that they wanted fattier fish.

There are 3 ways to catch tuna in this fishery:
1) Chumming – They go out to a place called Fisherman’s bank offshore, anchor and cut up pieces of chum fish like herring and mackerel and throw it over the side. It makes a line of chum through the water and the tuna follow along that and eat it. Then you have bait on the end of a rod and reel, which is in the chum, and when they take that they get hooked. The fish is then brought in with the rod.

2) Trolling – Sometimes, as Mike says, when they get bored, they use outriggers which are tall poles from which they trail bait, usually mackerel or squid, on spreader poles. They motor along slowly and the tuna takes the bait and they reel it in with the rod.

3) Kite flying – They can fly a kite, which Mike thinks may actually be illegal here, although nobody really cares. This seems to be the cruelest method, in my opinion. They take a live mackerel and put a hook through the top of its back, keeping it alive. Then they run a kite up from it in the water. The kite keeps the mackerel right on the surface and he’s swimming around, but can’t dive and that attracts the tuna. The tuna takes the mackerel and then the kite pops off and he’s on your line. Apparently, the deal for the mackerel is that if he makes it through the whole day you have to release him alive.”

That, generally paraphrased, is what Mike told me. Some of this, the stuff about the three types of fishing he relayed while we were looking at the tuna boats in Murray harbour. Both Lisa and I were horrified at the kite technique. The night before, while were partying, Mike called one of the tuna fishermen and asked him about where they were running. He was told that they had caught a few “up Murray Harbour way”, so the next day we piled in the car and took a drive to see what we could see. We arrived to find a deserted dock at Murray harbour, but there were a few boats rigged up for tuna fishing, so we looked at those and Mike explained the rigging. I wish I had a picture I could put in here, the rod and reel’s that they use for tuna fishing aren’t really all that big although the fishing line is pretty hefty. Mike say’s its 4 to 6 hundred pound test. The rods are hooked up around the edges of the boat, attached to the sides, some boats had up to 8, others only 3. The taller poles that they use for trolling stand straight up from the boat and extend probably 15 to 20 feet. Fortunately I saw no kites lying around. Not many boats were rigged up for tuna yet, apparently the season is just getting started.

Eventually, a guy came along and told us that there were some guys up at another bay, which unfortunately I cannot remember the name of (Island something), who were rigged up for tuna and we should try there. We arrived at another dock, deserted except for one old guy puttering around. He was near a boat that Mike recognized as one of the ones he’d been out tagging on last year and he asked the old guy if John MacKay was around. The answer we got, as can only happen in the Maritimes, was “He’s my son.” We talked a bit and explained what we were doing. He let Mike and I climb around on the boats and inspect the gear. The tubs that they fill with ice for the tuna are huge, about the size of a large chesterfield. The boats we looked at belonged to John MacKay and his father and were named “Glass Tiger II” and “Spray Maker” respectively.

I didn’t catch the old guy’s name and Mike was heavy into conversation about the sunfish they had seen on their last trip, so I didn’t like to ask. He had just returned from an expedition to the “Hellhole,” an area off George’s Bank. I asked him what the average catch for a tuna fisherman would be over a season and was surprised at how much it varied. He said that on average maybe 10 to 12 tuna in a season, some boats get up to 20 but lots get none. “Some young guys fish 5 years before they get one bite…one old guy tuna fished as a hobby and was 70 years old before he caught his first tuna, he fished for 25 years before he got his first bite. When they asked him what he’d like to do before he died he said, “I’d like to catch another tuna.”

On their last trip out, out of 30 boats, only three boats caught a tuna the rest didn’t have any bites at all. One of those fish had been totally useless, they sold the bellies but the lactic acid that the fish builds up when fighting can burn the meat if it’s not cooled down again, and the meat essentially turns to mush. Apparently the bellies are the most prized, and sometimes a bad spot can simply be cut out of the fish and the rest sold but other times it’s all burned and the fish is worth nothing.

We talked on the dock for awhile and then this guy said “Well, John came in this morning, he’s home, I’ll take you up and see him.” We protested that we didn’t want to bother him, but he insisted that he’d like to see Mike so we got back in the car and went on to invade the poor unsuspecting fisherman’s home. He was incredibly friendly and invited us all in. I’m sure his wife was not too impressed, they had 2 children, one a toddler and the other a baby with hip displaysia in a full body cast. We went in to the living room and he proceeded to tell us his theories of tuna psychology and about the tuna fishery. He gave me a lot of information so I’ll paraphrase it in basically the order we discussed it.

One thing that was very interesting was how well he and Mike got along. A lot of fishermen don’t really have much respect for the scientists and they discussed that as we were leaving, the problems with the fishery and quotas etcetera. He did understand their perspective and, I guess, since Mike had actually been out on the boat, he had a level of confidence in him.

John MacKay is a very funny guy, extremely friendly and very smart. I don’t know how much education he has but he has thought a lot about what he does and has some fun theories. He’s like a big kid and gets very excited and animated when he talks about the fish. He jumps up, waving his arms when describing the fighting fish and sits up very straight when he’s trying to really put his point across. It’s really nice to see someone who likes what they do so much and he was a great person to talk to about the industry.

So, down to business, the quota for the home area for tuna is 35 tons. John has a license for tuna fishing, they are all taken now but he said you could probably purchase one from a fisherman for approximately $35,000. In addition to having a license you must have a tag for every tuna you catch, before you catch it. Each tag costs $150 and you cannot redeem it if you do not catch a tuna. Here off PEI you can fish with only one tag at a time, but if you travel to an area like the Hellhole you are required to have 2 tags just to enter the zone. Because it is a seasonal fishery, John also has several other licenses even though he may not use all the licenses every year. This year he did not use his herring license. He fishes lobster from May to June, scallops in the late fall, and has a groundfish license but since the moratorium and small quotas he probably won’t use it. This year the flounder fishery may only last two days. What determines the length of the fishery is often the quotas, the fishery stops when the quota is reached or in the case of tuna they usually wrap it up around Halloween even if the quota isn’t caught – most of the fish have migrated by then.
They produce whole tuna, as Mike told me, and his operation consists of him and a hired man. Most of the tuna boats run with only 2 people but as soon as they “hook-up” if they are close to anyone, another boat will usually put another person on board to help. The bigger fish need 3 people; one to run the boat, one on the pole, and one to dart it. As soon as they can get a tuna beside the boat they usually put a harpoon in them, just as a back up in case the hook falls out. Then they put a swimming gaff or a rope in the fish’s jaw and out the gill and start towing it. If you force the water through the mouth you can bring them right back to life. Then they just tow them along behind the boat. This brings the fishes body temperature back down after the fight he has just gone through. John is not convinced that this always works. Sometimes, he says, they swim them and you get them back to the wharf and they’re still hot. He says it all depends on the fish, if it’s a skinny fish it doesn’t heat up. “The three or four hundred pounders aren’t as bad to heat up as the 1000 pounders in the bay here.”

The fish that are found in the bay here in PEI are the biggest. John says 1 out of 200 fish in the Hellhole weighs 600 pounds or more, here 1 out of 50 is below 600. The fish in the bay are generally 800 to 1000 pounds. John said that the bigger ones seem to come further north every summer and Mike chimed in that the bigger ones are older and have more temperature tolerance so they can come further north to the good feeding grounds. Length doesn’t make up a lot of the weight of the tuna once it gets into the 500 to 1000 pound range. A heavier fish will be a bit longer but most of its weight is made up in thickness, it starts puffing up like a barrel or a football.

John said that “they” say that the tuna pack on at least 150 pounds before they migrate. If he catches a tuna and he’s long and skinny, he knows right away that the fish just arrived here. They call these fish “racers.” The fish “eat hard” for 3 or 4 weeks and then once they get ready to migrate in late October “you can do whatever you want but they won’t bite.” “When they’re on route to wherever they’re headed, Gulf of Mexico or across the Atlantic, we don’t know really where they all winterize yet, they’re done eating.”

The weight of a tuna fluctuates; a 1000-pound fish is probably 25 or more years old. Mike also put in here that there is a learning curve with tuna, the smaller they are the easier they are to catch. “If you’ve spent 25 years with everyone in the ocean trying to catch you, you learn something…older and wiser.” John also notices that over the years the fish that they get are almost the “lazy fish.” The fish that take the bait on a chum line “almost don’t want to go out and catch live mackerel for themselves.” “Trollers don’t get as many fish on average as the chummers do but they get a better fish. Chummers pick a lot of the diseased fish, the lazy and sick ones out of the school…the healthier fish are the least likely to hook.” He sees himself as part of the food chain weeding the weak out of a herd. “Don’t get me wrong we’re gonna get good fish, but the hook and line fishery is almost like deer hunting, it weeds the school, it’s almost good for it cause we’ll get a lot of the ones with cancer in them or different diseases, yami or white cloud. The sick ones are at the end of the school. When the main school leaves in October, the last few fish caught are sick ones. They have plastic bags in their stomachs or garbage, some have ABS pipe.”

John’s theory on trolling is even more interesting: “Trollers use them plastic squid and they don’t bite cause they’re hungry its more or less aggravation, I think. Tuna all their life, when a mackerel is in their area, they go up to a mackerel and that mackerel takes off. Here’s 8 or 15 squid and they’re swimming up to the surface and the squid aren’t going away, they’re just going at the speed the boat’s towing them. I think the tuna gets mad, you know “Why aren’t you intimidated by me?” and you see them jump on the squid. A lot of trolled tuna are caught on their side cause they swim up and jump on the squid and try to kill them.” That was another thing that was interesting, that the tuna often rather than biting a fish will use their sheer size to attack a school and crash into them killing a few to make themselves a nice meal.

John does give the tuna a lot of credit for being thinking fish, and not just the tuna, he was talking about using sonar to detect the schools and said that they will avoid the sonar. You might mark one or two but six or eight will be swimming just out of range. He also says that the fish know long before the sonar picks up anything when a tuna is in the area. When they are chumming, they have grinders that put lots of bait out into the water and they will get other fish coming to feed, usually they get a lot of mackerel but they disappear very suddenly before a tuna shows up. He also talked about the kite fishing and said that you could have your poor mackerel swimming along quietly all day “but if all of a sudden he’s like a hydro. He’s panicking and you’re all, ‘What’s he all worked up about?’ Before you know it a tuna will grab him. Or sometimes he’ll be swimming and the next minute he’ll be playing dead and it’s cause the tuna’s around.”

He says the tuna know the line too. They’ll follow along and eat everything but the one with the hook in it. “You think oh it’s getting dark, I’ll sucker him into biting but I’ve chummed, had them till midnight in pitch black and they still know the one with the line. You can have one single fish around your bait line for hours but you’re in a better position if another tuna shows up, competition helps. One fish will have you figured out but when two move in its like 2 year olds after a cookie.”

So that’s how John’s operation works, if they are fishing in the bay 80% of the fishermen swim their fish into the harbour and let the processors handle the sawing off of the head and tail and eviscerating; away (outside the bay) this is done on the boat. John says though, that if you take the fish aboard here you can also keep fishing the rest of the day and have a chance of getting a second one, if you have ice. He says if you’re on anchor and marking 2 or 3 tuna and you catch one, 80% of the time when you come back to that anchor those other tuna will still be there (this, I think, is kind of sad – as Lisa said “Where’s Mom?”). John works with his father and if one of them “hook’s-up” they’ll take the fish to shore while the other gets on their anchor.

They sell their tuna from here sometimes, but more often from Canso, Sambro, or Port Hood since they are so close to Nova Scotia. On their last trip they went out to the Hellhole and then to Sambro to sell the fish. The Sambro fisheries plant unloads all the fish and handles the meat for them when they get to shore, packing the fish in ice etcetera. Then they called the buyers and held an auction for them, 5 or 6 buyers showed up that day.

There are two ways to sell tuna:
1) Consignment – Where a fisherman picks a buyer who will ship the fish directly to
Japan and sell them on the Japanese open market. Then you get what the fish is actually worth, but you have to wait for your money.
2) Auction – The buyers come to the docks and make offers to buy the fish right there. The nice part about auctioning your fish is that you know right there what you made and how your trip went. This is also called the “shore price”.

The prices at auction that day ranged from 6 to 21 dollars per pound. There are pros and cons to each way of selling your fish. At the market in Japan there is apparently, something like a 24-hour window in which buyers can return the fish and get their money back. If this happens the fishermen shipping on consignment, or the buyer who has already purchased the fish, gets burned.

John said that if he was shipping on consignment, on average he would probably get more for his tuna, but if one happened to be diseased, he’d be running the risk and lose out. That’s why so many take the sure thing at the wharf. If you don’t mind waiting a couple of weeks for your money and you like gambling, over ten years that would probably be the best way to go. “But its hard to do that with your first fish or two for the year, you’ve got bills adding up at home and your wife is saying, ‘John, how did you do in your tuna?’” We called this “domestic pressure.”

He sent a couple of tuna on consignment and on one he got 42 dollars per pound when he was only offered 20 dollars at the wharf. One week later, he got another – it was a fattier looking fish, the colour was even better and he was offered 18 dollars at the wharf. He turned that down, sent the fish on consignment and only got 14 dollars a pound. On a big fish like a tuna a dollar this way or that can make a huge difference in overall profit.

Another thing that can affect the price of the fish is completely uncontrollable. His buyer told him that the 42 dollar fish probably hit the market when not a lot of other fish were there and the second fish could have hit the market when 200 fish from New Zealand came in.

Every country in the world is sending to Japan and the Japanese market is interesting. John’s theory was that the Japanese like the big fish and they think that if they eat a big strong fish, they’ll get big and strong. So when a fish comes on the market, they all bid on the biggest fish driving up the price; and even if another fish is great quality they’ll ignore it, because they all want the big fish. So everyone tries to outbid on the biggest fish and the others go for mediocre prices.

In Sambro, on their last trip, there were 6 buyers who showed up. Here in PEI there are only a couple who show up later on in the fall. Most of the local fishermen sell their tuna in Port Hood. The buyers gather and there are always 3 or 4 new guys, as he called them “fly-by-nighters,” who will pay big prices but aren’t around the next year. One of the big problems that a fisherman faces is economics. He says you fish all month and you’ve finally got your 1 fish but you’ve probably got about 4 or 5 thousand dollars of expenses. Everyday you use a couple hundred liters of fuel and a hundred dollars of chum. “It’s about 3 or 4 hundred dollars a day, just to chase the stupid thing. So you take your fish to the auction block and you get 20 dollars a pound but if you’ve got a buyer that you’ve never seen before the question becomes, Can you trust his money?’“ John never has, but some fishermen have sold their fish to a guy and the next thing they know the buyer is gone, he’s disconnected his Canadian cell phone and the check bounces. Sometimes they’re better off not taking the biggest price and going with the guy they know.

He does give the buyers credit too, because they are working behind on every load they buy. They may only buy one fish from him, but could buy 10 fish in a day laying out over $100,000 in an afternoon; and they don’t get any money until after the fish is sold in Japan. If the buyer takes a loss it can really set him back. John says, “A lot of fishermen are down on the buyer cause they don’t give the best prices but, with the few I’ve shipped myself, you’ve gotta be considerate of them cause they are running a gamble.”

Of course the main market for tuna is Japan. The American domestic market is growing and John said that if they get a mediocre fish it is more likely to go there because it costs so much for air-freight to Japan. The bluefin is not marketed locally and John speculated that if the Japanese stopped buying tuna the fishery would collapse. Even the domestic prices would drop, as the only reason they pay half as much as they do is that everything would go to Japan if they didn’t. John has also heard that tuna isn’t that healthy for North Americans to eat, because it has so much mercury in it. He’s not sure about this but has been told that because the Japanese have so much fish in their diets they can handle the high mercury but it wouldn’t be good for us.

All in all, I have to say I learned a lot from this assignment. I never would have sat down and listened as intently to the fishtales of Mike or a local fisherman if I hadn’t had to, but I’m glad I did. John and his whole family were so friendly, helpful, and really wonderful people. It’s not often you can barge in on the middle of a stranger’s Sunday afternoon and be so welcomed. As you can see, I learned a lot about how they fish the tuna (the 3 methods), how it is sold (the 2 methods and pros and cons), whom it is sold to, and a bit of tuna psychology. Not a bad return for an afternoon investment, but as John said I really should see when all the buyers come in and start looking over the tuna. I never would have thought I would be interested in that but now it is something that I would really like to see.

Sonja Englund

I love second hand bookstores. You never know what treasures you may find in the musty section of the store.

Women Can Fish, written back in the 50′s is one of my all time favorite finds.

The true story of a professional fisher woman who spends her honeymoon on a river and her married life chasing much sought after game fish around the world. My kind of Gal! In fact I have modeled myself after her. In her book, she meticulously outlines what to bring on a fishing trip and how to pack. She describes etiquette on and off the water as well as her noteworthy fishing exploits.

I tried to find the author to tell her that she inspired me to walk in her shoes, and my life has mirrored hers but she passed away before I could track her down.
Every time I pack my fishing bag I think of her. I don’t think things have changed all that much for women anglers since her day. (Perhaps fewer fish but that’s about all.)

I have fished all 4 corners of the globe and I worry that I will run out of time before I can fish all the places I dream of fishing.

So why is this significant?
Well in her book, she talks about what to bring on a fishing trip. (She even has pencil drawings of what the outfits might look like during an era when people dressed for dinner.)

I subscribe to her practices and find great enjoyment getting ready for my travel adventures. Like my mentor, I lay out each outfit and try to pick pieces that can be mixed and matched to make several outfits by combining key pieces. I take pride in arriving into camp with the smallest fishing bag.

Each outfit is wrapped in tissue and then squeezed together into a zippered pouch. This keeps the items from wrinkling and it’s also a space saver. Not to mention the efficiency of getting ready in the usually tight quarters that fishing accommodations provide.

Even more critical is how I’ve organized my fishing gear. All my gear is neatly fitted into a portable pack, like bike courier’s carry with a wide comfortable shoulder strap.
When I arrive at camp, I simply pull this unit free from the roller bag and away I go. No digging for gravel guards, tippet glasses etc. I’m always the first person out the door ready to fish. Always!

So what happens when I arrive at my destination and my bag does not? I remind myself that a bad day on the water is still better than the best day in the office and I make the best of it.

I’m taking my first vacation in 8 years and might I say that it is a trip of a lifetime. I’m fishing near Mauritius, a volcanic island 800km east of Madagascar. Fishing the waters of the “spice route” in the Indian Ocean. We are wading the flats that dome St’ Brandon’s for Bonefish, Permit and several species of Trevally.

I’m booked with Fly Castaway for the first time. I wanted to give them a try after hearing that they had gained access to this pristine ecosystem as an alternative to the Seychelles that have a danger issue with Somali pirates these days.

After much deliberation with the local authorities and a great deal of planning, the next step was an exploratory expedition in the spring of 2009 and again in the fall. The Fly Castaway team were rewarded with double digit bones, reasonable numbers of Permit and Giant Trevally that they fell over as the fish patrolled the shallow white sandy bottom for bait fish, crabs and shrimp. All the usual cast of game fish were milling around as well, like Milk fish, Sharks etc.

The fish as well as the remarkable bird life displayed an unusual tolerance for human presence. Paradise lost… the name of our hotel and the reality for this area knowing that the eyes of the fishing world are upon them. “The new Seychelles.” The way the fishing was at the beginning before all the boats and lodges.
Lost as well is my perfectly packed bag!!!! The airline has lost my gear for the second time in 4 months. Gone are the days when you would board the plane with rod and flies in hand. Everything has to be checked.

Even more of a worry is word of cyclone Cleo. We arrived 4 days before our 24-hour boat ride from the safe harbor of Port Louis in Mauritius to our final destination, within sight of St. Brandon’s in the comfort of the Gryphon. (A 96foot Yacht). Our plan was to explore the island and take pictures. Unexpectedly our trip was cancelled at one point because of weather, and then back on, and then on hold once again. We were glued to the satellite feed as it tracked the path of storm number 6 for this season. (So much for leaving the hotel.)

This “time out” was a great opportunity for my luggage to catch up with me.

There is much to see and do on the island of Mauritius. It is 60 times larger than my hometown of Bermuda. The population of 1.2million is a melting pot of many peoples. French, English, German, Spanish and Hindi are commonly spoken by most locals who work with tourists and tourism is only second to the revenue brought in by harvesting sugar cane.

We had word that the Italians had boarded their plane trip was on again. The Captain felt comfortable with the conditions said we could out run the storm if we departed early in the morning. I decided I needed to see the ship for myself and have a face-to-face discussion to put my mind at ease. High seas and high winds don’t make for good fishing and glossy brochures were my only benchmark for the seaworthiness of the vessel.
The baby faced South African captain greeted me with a warm smile and welcomed me on board to look around even though he was very busy loading supplies for the next morning. The Gryphon is beautiful!!

Something that “she” would have voyaged on back in the 60′s.

Elegant lines all in white with a blue pinstripe at the water line and a sailor red bottom. The 23 ft beam would provided plenty of room for several anglers to stand watch over the big guns, although somehow, an angler who will remain nameless, took ownership for the ride out and back. Bringing alongside a small sailfish for his fishing partner to land on the way out and a small black Marlin for himself to play on the return…..non the less…..a hook up and photo opp. How small you ask? 80lbs at most in both cases.

Anyway back to the Gryphon. The 3 level vessel with 4 spacious guest cabins, private bath and air conditioning provided plenty of space and comfort for 8 sports and 8 crew for the voyage. Satisfied, I asked the taxi driver to take me to a store where I could replace my tighty whities and pick up as many of the items listed in our pre-trip package as possible before the hour or so drive back to the hotel.

It was clear that my luggage would not make trip. I can’t find words to describe my desperation and dire disappointment not to be able to replace my flats boots (size 5), fishing gear, and creature comforts for the voyage. Nor do I care to have a repeat the performance of trying on bra’s on top of my clothing in a busy retail mall because they didn’t have a changing room.” I am all women, let me tell you”.

Beaten up and worn down after the brain damage of it all and jet legged to top it off, I limped back to my room to try to get my head around the 24 hour boat ride still to come. I started my Gravol (anti Nausea meds) regiment that night and I would take a second when I got up and a third when I got on the boat and a fourth…….. well you get the picture. The water was rolling big time on the way over and a number of people (4 that were obvious) suffered seasickness. An affliction that is worse than anything and some people pray to die to end the dry heaves. The bitters were flowing and I noticed the bottle was half empty. Only one person had a repeat performance on the way back but the seas were not so angry since the storm had blown out days before.

I won’t give you a play by play of each days events once the fishing started, but I will tell you that the fishing was “ridiculously fantastic”. You can quote me on that. I fished with rented 9X9 weight GLoomis Crosscurrent Fly Rods married with Shilton SL6 large arbour reels with 300 yards of 60lbs braid (I was told it was gelspun). The fly line was a weight forward floating salt water line for warm conditions like a 9 weight Cortland 444 SL Tropic plus and straight 16lb test leader for bonefish. The smallest bonefish landed that week to my knowledge was 6 pounds by scale. The average landed would be pushing double digit and trophy bones were common. They wouldn’t eat just anything at all….we did try and with a little work got some outright refusals. But mostly what they did love were Gotchas #6 and #4′s. Spawning shrimp, Fleeing crabs in tan and tan and cream. I bought all my flies from the guides. They were beautifully tied on tin hooks. (Extra fly line with you each day is a must.) This venue would be ideal for someone who has given up on salt water fishing because they don’t get enough chances at fish to get any good and in the end give up. It is not the place for you if you like smart bonefish. So I targeted permit and GT’s. The permit flies were tied on Gamakatsu SL11-3H hooks. Fished with a 9 foot x 10 weight Gloomis Cross Current GLX., flies such as the Fleeing Crab in tan and tan and white #2 worked well. Throw in a Swimming Crab and a Permit Hermit and you will be entertained for days.

I cast to permit feeding on mottled bottom usually in pairs. As well, I would swing a fly into position on hard packed white sand flats using the tide to maximum benefit.
We were fishing a new moon so the tides were pulling water and the big boys were on the move. Time to break out the 12 weight for Giant Trevally, Golden Trevally, Greenspot Trevally, Bluefin Trevally and Barracuda the length of my refrigerator (no joke) were attainable each session provided you could hold it together as they blew past. Sometimes I did and most times I didn’t. I loved every minute!!! The guides were on the ball regardless of having fished this water only a few times themselves. No machismo in the bunch. Solid guys who know their stuff and couldn’t be more helpful. (Why is that so unusual these days?) It wasn’t all roses don’t kid yourself…..I had to fish in winter hiking boots because I couldn’t get a replacement for my missing Simms flats boots (even the factory was out of stock when I called to see if they would be able to courier a pair to Mauritius) to protect myself from Stonefish, Rays, corral etc. They budgeted for only 3 tender boats to take us from the ship and drop us at the flats for the day. Although we were never more than a 20min ride to the flats on a given day, 3 full days and one half day out of a potential 6full days and 2 half days, we were with 2 strangers and a second guide fishing for a good period of time in view of us. 3 days we had for a time 6 anglers and 3 guides fishing in view of each other. There was plenty of water and fish for everyone; that is not the issue. For me it is that with so much water, why would we have to share the flats with anyone. The answer lies with the tenders. You do the math. Such a simple fix for another time. I did have the unpleasant experience of being called away from a fishing ridge so that the bulldozer of our group, “Mr. Marlin”, could have the water to himself once again even though he had to come clear across the bowl in quick order to cut me off at the pass. Lastly the issue of food and it does come up a lot on fishing trips. (We do have to eat). The fishing was much better than the food. Thankfully, this was the case because if the fishing had blown out with Cleo and all we had to comfort us was the food then we would have had mutiny on the Gryphon.

So how does the report card look on this trip:
Guides A+
Numbers of fish A+
Varieties of fish A+
Wading conditions A+
Crew A+
Tender boats C (need one more)
Food C (should have provided more variety, more salads and more vegetables-for 10 days breakfast was identical-cool to warm fried eggs, bacon, toast, cereal. Lunch was a white bread sandwich with meat and tomatoes and fried chicken)
Transportation B (Gryphon needs some TLC)
FlyCataway B+(one of the best we’ve booked with)
Mauritius B
Lufthansa airline F (my luggage has never been found)

If you would like to hear more about the fishing off St. Brandon’s I would be happy to send part 2 called “eat it!!”

Kathryn@whatacatch.net

Consumers are being misled about the seafood they buy, with negative impact on their wallets, marine conservation and human health.

As a professional Angler I have a better chance than most to identify the species of fish I’m served and it’s a good thing because recent studies by researchers in North America and Europe have consistently found seafood products to be accidentally or perhaps deliberately mislabeled 20-25 percent of the time in supermarket coolers and restaurants. Seafood is one of the least regulated areas of our food chain.

Even though the first regulatory law was proclaimed in the early 13th century by the King of England, we have not found a happy balance between the economic, moral and political arms of managing the seafood industry. “It is my opinion, that most shocking is the threat to public health. Modern methods for supplying seafood to the masses has resulted in an explosion of illnesses from Bacteria, Viruses, Parasites and Toxins.”

Seafood is extremely sensitive to proper handling and refrigeration. Eighty four percent of the 1,700 varieties of seafood eaten in the US is imported and only 2 percent is inspected by the FDA. The Canadian equivalence is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It provides all federal inspection services related to food in Canada and the regulations are spelled out in the Food and Drug Act which was published in 2003. Despite these governing bodies, trade and trace ability is a major problem particularly for illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries. Over fishing under the blanket of nations providing flags of convenience and relaxed import/export regulations result in fish stock collapses worldwide and processing standards that are not up to snuff for consumers in North America, so we end up sick. It is estimated that 18-20 percent of food born illnesses contracted by 76 million Americans each year are a direct result of the inability of the public to identify what seafood they are eating, the country of origin, production methods, how it was caught and how many times it was frozen.

Seafood fraud is a huge problem on many levels including the undermining of public confidence in the food supply. More than 3/4 of the worlds oceans are over fished. The consumer index for seafood has risen more than 27 percent over the past 10 years creating significant economic incentives for fraud and illegal fishing.
In 1924, the Supreme court ruled that the Food and Drug Act condemns every statement, design or device on a product label that may mislead or deceive.

So with this law in place, how is it possible that studies indicate that 70-80percent of Red Snapper sold in the US is some other fish like Channel Catfish. Atlantic Cod is often Oil Fish, Whiting or Norwegian Pollock. Scollops are swapt for less expensive skate wings and Lobster at times is Scampi. If you order a steak at a high end restaurant and the waiter serves you a low quality burger instead, you would be outraged and you would send it back immediately. So we should be hopping mad when they do the bait and switch with our seafood.

I was enjoying a luncheon with a girlfriend not long ago at a fine Italian restaurant on Bloor street in Toronto Canada. When my Halibut arrived it was clearly Snapper (a fish I don’t eat). I pointed this out to the server. She explained that they were out of Halibut so they gave me what they had on hand. It was not what I ordered and they didn’t adjust the price to reflect the lower quality fish. Alarmed by how often this happens, I decided I needed to tell someone and try to do something about this. I started by calling Health Canada. Six departments later, I found a helpful ear. They said “this is just one of a number of problems with our seafood supply and that they are working on the problem.”

Time will tell.

One of the reasons I’m an Angler and not a hunter is that I can let the fish go. After reading a paper by Jennifer L. Jacquet and Daniel Pauly called, “Trade secrets: Renaming and Mislabeling of Seafood”, I have decided that I need to put my fishing skills to work, no longer fishing for “sport” but rather to harvest a safe protein source for my family. In my freezer is a fourteen dollar package of Cod that I bought from a high end boutique grocery store on Bloor street in Toronto, Canada. I poached the fish and to my amazement it doubled in size. The package labeled Cod was in fact squid, (I don’t eat squid).

CBC’s Marketplace found 1 in 5 fish in Canada are mislabelled.

A 3 year study from the University of Washington showed that what may be called King Salmon was, in fact, the more common Coho Salmon which is not of the same quality as the more expensive King Salmon. In Puget Sound area restaurants, salmon called wild-caught Pacific Salmon on the menu was found to be replaced by the less-expensive farm raised Atlantic Salmon that I call “Frankin Fish”. Farmed Salmon contain higher concentrations of contaminants like growth hormone and antibiotics than Wild Salmon. Farmed fish often escape and introduce disease to wild native fish, (along with many other problems). Mislabeling prevents eco-aware consumers from making effective purchasing decisions on behalf of conservation in support of organizations like the Living Ocean Society. In more than 38 percent of restaurants, farmed fish were mislabeled, and 7 percent of retail samples were mislabeled.

I suffer from Mercury poisoning and I didn’t understand why until I learned that approximately 90 million cans of Light Tuna or Chunk Tuna sold each year in the US actually contain Yellow Fin Tuna whose Mercury Levels are on Par with Albacore, (which I do not eat). Rather than properly labeling their product they decreased the amount of Tuna in a can by 15 percent to exactly 170g(6oz). This keeps them below allowable levels for Mercury.

As I write this report I’m sitting hooked up to an IV drip, sorting my various medications needed for treating illnesses I’ve contracted through our food supply. The seafood industry has a floundering conscience.

Kathryn@whatacatch.net

When the committee for the American Museum of Fly Fishing asked me to put together a box of my favorite flies it was like being told to go watch a Prada fashion show and report on the new spring line. I was so excited and relieved, not to have to pick just one fly (or in the case of fashion, just one ensemble). I couldn’t have had a better day to go through my fly boxes. A March snowstorm! I’m warm inside surrounded by memories elicited by the sorting of fishing flies. Flies, flies and more flies. I’m drawn to these jewels like a raven to an emerald. The ones I like best still have the nub of leader married to the eye from the battle won or lost during a previous trip. My love affair with flies started with the Blue Charm. A “go to” fly for Atlantic Salmon that works well in various sizes, so long as it is kept in the water. I was taught by a militaristic guide in the Gaspe named Mario (he was actually a drill sergeant in the army) that changing flies was a waste of time. If the fish wanted to take the fly, it would, no matter what fly you had tied on. The “but” in this instruction however, was that you had to believe in the fly; “I wish it were that simple.” I remember, in my very early learning years, that it was the Blue Charm I was using the first time I cut the tippet off to change the fly (to find out for myself if color and size made a difference). I chose to replace the Blue Charm with a Green Highlander. After cutting off the Blue Charm, I realized I didn’t know how to tie the new fly on and no one was around to help me.

I had a good laugh at myself that day. Fishing has afforded me many opportunities to laugh at myself over the years. You may have noticed that I didn’t put the Blue Charm in my sample fly box. I had to exclude many of my frequently used flies to make room for the ones that spoke to me today. No different than a day on the water when you just get that certain feeling that “this is the one!”

The first fly is a bomber. The “Paintbrush” bomber is my favorite, but I was all out of them. Seems this is the nature of fly boxes. The one you really want is never there. I picked this fly because dry fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon is my first love. Watching this fly float down and ride high in the pocket is what I enjoy most when fishing.

What I like to do next is fish a muddler of the same color. This drives the Salmon crazy. They’ve been looking up at the dry fly for a time, when suddenly, something that looks the same jitters in their face…well it’s like a cat with a string…irresistible. The fly next to the muddler is an attractor pattern that works well, around the world, for trout. I just like it.

The Red Francis was a fly I started to introduce to guides outside of Iceland. It, not me, impressed them a lot. Not only because it caught fish, but also because they hadn’t laid eyes on a fly like that on their home waters before. I represent a new style of Atlantic Salmon angler. Someone who breaks all the rules but gets results. Sure got them talking back at the guide shack! They would always ask to borrow the fly so they could tie one up that night. I would give them a few as a sort of thank you for the days fishing. It was my way of saying I like you and I hope to fish with you again one day. I have had a few guides refuse to take my offering, but I can handle rejection by man and fish.

The Bug is a fly that somehow always ends up in my purse along with my lipstick and Kleenex. The security people at the airport look at me strangely when they go through my bag and see fishing stuff. I try and lighten the mood by saying, “There’s that fly. I was looking for that”. I’m sure I’m not the only fisherman with flies in her purse.

The Bass Popper is something that works well and is made from earplugs taken from the toiletry kit on planes. I have a BFA degree and I love working with my hands. I find fly-fishing and pottery to be very similar. They both elicit a rise. Fishing with this fly is like walking down a busy street with a clown nose on. You can’t help but smile. It has an added surprise of a whooshing noise as it sings along past your ear.

Next is the Clouser Minnow. It’s deadly and I enjoy the man who created the pattern.

I had to throw in a baitfish pattern and I would have liked to put in some of my big game flies as well. But there is only so much room in this box. My five-foot frame is no match for the billfish and GT’s but I keep going back for more. I blew out the ligaments in my left arm hauling on a big fish. I still landed it, but to this day I can’t bend my wrist.

The last fly in my box is a pattern for Taimen. It has everything I like about a fly. A leech tail (all fish love that), a foam body for surface action, a cupped head to create noise and splash like a struggling fish (in this case a squirrel), feet that swim when you put action on the fly and a perfect hook that won’t leverage free. This fly is so lightweight to cast and is poetry in motion. I fish it on every trip no matter what species. The usual reaction from the guide seeing the pattern for the first time is #1) holly crap and #2) that won’t work. I love teaching an old dog a new trick.

I invented a fly called KJ’s Popsicle. It will never make it into anyone’s fly box because it doesn’t work worth a damn. I invented it on a snowy day like today a decade ago. I guess that is what winter is for…. telling fishing stories and inventing and sorting flies. God bless. See you on the water. Kathryn Maroun (aka “queen of the cats”)

Tell me what flys would be in your box.

Kathryn Maroun President of What A Catch Productions and Casting For Recovery Canada

 Kathryn@whatacatch.net