Wrinkly Bits
A Blog by Gail Cushman
Okay, everyone knows I’m easily amused, and now I must admit you are right. We got up at about 7:00 and looked out the window seeing a dock lined with boats in the water and tour buses on the dock itself. “Look, Cowboy, they are unloading fish, a lot of fish. I see 23 extra-large fishing boats and since this is tuna country, catching half of the tuna in the world, they are probably tuna.” Sometimes I can be very smart. Cowboy nodded, no answer because he wasn’t quite awake yet. The tuna crew tasked with unloading the boat was just arriving and reported in all kinds of manners: bikes, pickups, small trucks, walking, just about anything you could imagine. About 50 people arrived to go to work. Large trucks on both ends of the boat carried hoppers into which fish could be deposited. Those hopper-trucks were the size of a rail container. A crane dipped its net into the ship’s hold and up came a large net, about 200 cubic feet, crammed with tuna. The nets were about six feet, as far as I could tell from my balcony about 30 yards away. No way could I count them, but if I were guessing, I’d guess 250 fish and these full nets appeared to be filled with chilled fish, or at least that’s what Cowboy said after watching the puffs of white clouds come off each load.
Each of the boats had a helicopter on it, a small one. I’m not sure they flew, but now and then, they lifted up a few feet, turned around, hovered, and set back down again. Another puzzle. Cowboy said they are performing maintenance, but sometimes I think he just tells me things to stop me from asking more stupid questions.
As the workers got on the boat, a security guard frisked them. At first, I was puzzled, wondering what he was searching for: bread and mayo for tuna sandwiches? But in hindsight: weapons. It only made sense, because a boatload of tuna is worth a ton of money. Security stuck around all day, making sure something illegal didn’t get on the boat. The tuna powerhouses are Chicken of the Sea, Bumblebee, and Starkist and they all have plants in Manta Ecuador.
Cowboy and I watched for about half an hour before we went for breakfast, scrambles, bacon, and blueberry muffins. Yum. We drank two pots of coffee and talked to a guy from Florida for about an hour, then went back to our cabin. The nets were still coming up, so I set my handy dandy Apple stopwatch. It took 5-10 minutes to pull a net full of fish from the bottom of the boat, and they were still at it. I figure they pulled in about 10-15 netfuls of fish every hour. I have no clue as to how many tuna casseroles that would make, but probably enough for all school lunches for a year.
Here’s where I’m easily amused. I watched them for nearly four hours, thinking they were almost done. They broke for lunch and we did, too. They went back to it, net after net of tuna. But wait! Cowboy and I went on a tour, to watch how Panama Hats are made (We are in Ecuador, but no one talks about Ecuador Hats). It was a long tour, and we returned to the ship at about 5:30…the workers were still pulling fish from the bottom of the boat. Ten and a half hours’ worth of tuna. We were close to the equator, which means H-O-T. I am sure these men were working hard, and I’m sure they smelled of tuna.
As for me, last night fresh tuna was on the menu, but I opted for beef. It’s a Montana thing.
