A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
Fishing is the main industry on Phu Quoc, and although most fishermen in larger boats fish all night and sleep during the day, we were fortunate enough to watch a smaller boat and crew perform its smaller scale fishing process right in front of the beachside restaurant (really more of a thatched open-air tent with tables) at which we were devouring fresh squid with garlic, onions and rice. And yes, it was probably better than any squid you will ever taste in in the USA.

So here's how it works. The boat takes off from the beach, leaving behind a man, a tiny peasant woman in conical hat, a basket connected to a rope on the boat, and a wooden apparatus that looks like a cross between the stocks they had to punish wrongdoers in colonial America and a rotisserie with two wooden stakes driven through it at opposite angles. The boat heads out a hundred yards or so, trailing the rope, then they feed out a long net mostly parallel with the shore, which is connected continuously with the original rope. A second rope (or the third part of the rope/net combo already described) is then brought back to the shore along with another basket and wooden pulling contraption.

After an hour or so of moving the whole shebang up and down the beach a few times in little increments, the ladies on the shore get to work with the hard labor. She sits on the part of the wooden machine closest to the salnd, winds the end of the rope twice around the rotisserie/spindle, and starts pulling the wooden stakes toward her in a continuous motion, using her feet as well both to brace herself and to push and pull the rope in simultaneously. The man, naturally, has the far less taxing job of coiling the rope carefully into the basket as it comes through. Women really get shafted on workload here.

Once the rope is mostly hauled in on both sides and the net is visible, boys and young men come out of the woodwork to pull the ends together and roll up the net gradually, herding the fish toward the center. When the net is pulled onto the beach with the fish jumping around inside, the women converge again, sitting around the net and tossing unwanted items (jellyfish, garbage, etc) back into the sea, and putting all the little fish (there were none more than 8"), squid and crabs of sufficient size into something resembling a plastic laundry basket. Let me tell you, there did not seem to be many fish in there considering the size of the net and the amount of labor and time that went into the whole operation, but the participants seemed satisfied with the haul.

After the women separated out the various kinds of sea life, the catch was divvied up among the various participants. Thankfully, they gave most of the proceeds to the woman who worked the hardest pulling in the rope. Of course, that probably just means she's responsible for cleaning the damned things, too.

© 2002 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 8:38 PM