Bombing the Net
Tuesday night the Papa George crew fished for squid on the back side of Catalina Island. The front side is a Marine Protected Area and is closed to seining. The squid were deep and wouldn't come up to the lights as usual. Steve and crew made a set and saved eighteen tons, but with a large amount of "junk" .... unwanted sardines and mackerel. The search was on for a cleaner school of squid. A lightboat called with a good batch of squid under his lights and Steve responded, making a set on 100 tons or so. Inexperience caused the squid to spill out of the net, over the corks until 50 tons was left. The lightboat is supposed to draw the squid to different parts of the net according to the squid boat captain's directions. In this case, the lightboat operator's inexperience caused the squid to bunch up too close to the big boat. Steve grabbed the net to draw it up and when the winch pulled up on the net, the "bunt" split and all the squid was lost. This is called bombing the net. This family blog cannot repeat what was said at that moment.
It means lots of work and expense ahead. Steve delivered his eighteen tons at noon and went right to work sewing up the damage. The "money bag" or bunt of our net was split for over 60 ft. with some "stalagmites" here and there. The guys put the net on the dock, hired four helpers, and set to work. By 9 pm. they had sewed half and "koozied" the rest. Back on deck went the net, skiff on top, and off they rushed to search for more squid last night. Our crew is something else, skipper included. They know that any day now, the squid could disappear. Make hay, guys.
Our gourmet albacore business,
www.papageorgetuna.com , is canning a new line of Kosher albacore in two sizes, 6 oz. and 3.75 oz., also in kosher extra virgin olive oil. These products should be available by the middle of February.
