A very nice Penn International reel there too.
For a moment I thought Alex aged 20 years !
Then I noticed the difference in stripes !
Relative or some sort ?
Just leave the fish in the water.
There are enough animals killed each day in the world, you don't need to make this number bigger for fun.
You have great pictures and great blog, but showing the way you kill other creatures has no place in a blog that shows the beauty of nature.
Let the nature live, it was here before us and will be here after us. Don't make it suffer for your pictures!
Patricia what do you know about if these people kill the fish? Most big game fishers lets the fish go back into the ocean after they caught it.
I just assumed (maybe wrong) that they killed it, by: "...he was a great fighter, took about 30 minutes to work it up on deck". Somehow I thought that the fish would die after fighting for 30 mins.
Can you say "DINNER!"?
Surely that would make a fine meal for many nights?
versus: imported frozen chicken breasts, wrapped in polystyrene container further wrapped in shrink wrap, packed in cardboard export cartons, imported via diesel freighter, trucked by diesel truck to container yard, from chicken factory consuming mega wattage of power.
all paid with paper money from trees.
I hope you kept and enjoyed every bit of Mahi Mahi. It's one of the best eating fish on Earth! Cruising sailors are about the most environmentally concious people in the world and I applaud the eating of fresh fish, fruits, vegetables, etc. And throw the remains back in the sea for the scavengers. It's the circle of life! Keep the fishing reports coming in. Jay
Congrats! I certainly hope this beautiful fish became an equally beautiful dinner (can't wait for those pictures too).
Patricia, if you want to talk about leaving fish in the water, maybe you should take your rant to a blog about commercial fishing. The number of people sailing around the world and fishing to sustain themselves is nothing compared to the size of the world's commercial fishing fleet.
Mahi Mahi only live for about two years and if you are going to eat any fish this is a great one that renews quite well. Patricia when you live by nature you eat nature or it will eat you. Like the comment prior said if you feel better buying it at a store, you do what lets you sleep at night. But these people will be satisfied and well fed. If you have not experienced this don't comment.
The world has many ugly faces, but this blog wants to show the beauty of it, at least that was my impression, and it is nothing beautiful in killing an animal.
I can say DINNER, and I can say VEGETARIAN, and I can say VEGAN.
There are options, you know...
Anyway there is a bunch of fish already killed out there, I can see no point in killing some others when the blog itself is about nature in its simple beauty with no human intervention.
If it were a dolphin would you say the same? How about a cat or a dog? Is there a difference? And if so, why? Why do you make a difference in between species? Is it based on their IQ, is it based on the fact that you think that they cannot feel pain, or is it based on the fact that you think their life is not important for them as yours is for yourself?
What is the level where your compassion starts? Some feel sorry for dolphins, some for elephants, some for dogs... Some for all...
I just think that I was wrong about this blog as being a celebration of life and nature. If it shows what men can do to other animals just because they can, there is nothing special about it, a blog just like the others...
Henry Beston said the following and I share his opinion:
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."
Oh Patricia I can understand your passion for animals, nature and your life choice which I assume is to be a vegetarian or even a vegan. I respect that completely and I can somehow admire the strength that is required when resisting to eat beautiful meat/fish.
I sometimes wish I could resist it more, but I love eating well way too much and I'm not going to apologize for it. As long as you make the best in choosing ecologically/naturally fed and reared livestock and animals, I think it is fine to eat meat. Both me and Alex have made a choice in life to eat meat - chicken, fish, seafood, cow etc and we always make sure to cut off as many middle hands as possible when purchasing our food. When buying meat chicken etc, we always make sure to get it straight from the local butcher, extremely rarely imported, we also never buy fish any longer as we catch our own and we never take from the sea or the nature more than what will feed us. Some fish we catch goes straight back into the sea, some are what will be our dinner, sometimes even lunch and a dinner for next night as well and somehow that gives us satisfaction when knowing that we do not waste on natural resources.
This is a quite sensitive area and subject to discuss just like religion and politics and I can't make you change your mind as little as you can change ours. I think the main importance is that we all take some time to think about what we do, why we do it and that we in the end are able to acknowledge that what we have chosen in life is OK - for ourselves and the nature. There are options and different opinions, let's respect that.
Yes Taru, I would say that what we eat is a very sensitive subject, I know it from experience as I am a vegan for many years, and you can imagine I had tons of discussions along the years, starting with my family and ending with your blog.
I did not write to make you vegetarian, I am happy to find out that you are a concious eater though, this is way far better than most people.
I just said that these kind of images do not fit in this blog, because I saw your blog as a celebration of nature, and these pictures just do not fit. This is just my opinion, for sure you can live the way you want, and I can do the same.
Come on it is a big fish for just a couple. But maybe they had to feed the large fish-eating mustacio in photograph #4.
You have to totally concur with Alex & Taru's perspective though: make a choice, make sure it is reasonable to you and acceptable to others, and then no one will have to suffer frozen fish or that which is rotting on the food stalls.
Also take note the picture of such a beautiful fish such as the last one goes a long way to educate people. To keep talking via such a blog also works.
bottom line being: did you eat the mahimahi and tell us how good it was.
"As long as you make the best in choosing ecologically/naturally fed and reared livestock and animals, I think it is fine to eat meat."
The quote above does not really go with the picture you showed earlier of your great delicacy, foei gras. That, if something on this planet, is nothing but pure cruelty done only to please your taste buds.
Patricia, get a life!!
What a splendid fish! Thank you for sharing, as always!
Hear hear. Well put there Taru. It was a very eloquent response in a polite and matter-of-fact-tone which I hope Miss P will appreciate and accept. We are all different and entitled to our own opinion. Sail on! =)
ps - very nice answer to Patricia, I thought.
Patricia,
I understand you wanting to live a life the way you want to, but please live and let live. These talented wonderful people are being kind enough to let us sail vicariously with them. Please do not try to instill your beliefs about being a vegan on this blog. I am sure many would like to discuss it on a vegan blog.
Alex I bet you and many had a wonderful dinner. Beautiful fish.. ENJOY.
That fish is beautiful!
I back up the idea that is better to eat what you fish, than buying already fished fish with all those food miles around the globe... that is what is killing our planet!
Remember, buy local, fresh, organic and seasonal products... that will help much more the environment than you think so...
Not because you're vegan and buy stuff that comes from the other side of the world you're doing a better job... (and I'm not criticising vegans) we just got to thing twice what we choose to do and buy regarding food if we really want to help the environment.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that fish and ate it all or saved it for later! That's just the cycle of life
Now I'm craving for some fish... Mhmmm
Cheers!
PS. Can you tell me what camera equipment do you have and what software do you use to do a bit of editing? I LOVE your pictures!
Well said. Respect for everyone's choices/believes but humans are omnivores, not herbivores. There's nothing wrong with cathing an animal and eating it. How do lions get their meals?
As long as the animals are not needlesly tortured or caught for a fin and discarded. No harm done, no environmental disaster will come upon us, no impeding doom is looming.
You should make sure to go to the british virgin island just east of puerto rico. The "baths" are super duper. And I mean extremely unique with enormous rocks strewn on the beach creating passageways, shadows and places to explore. It's a British national park.
Check it out! and yes, I just got home from work and I'm jealous.
Phil Luker
OK, attempt #2 to leave a comment.
Do NOT leave the Carribean without checking out the British Virgin Islands. Especially the Baths. The Baths are a British National Park. A super beach with enormous boulders the size of houses strewn on the beach. You can hike through them and find unique passageways. Just wonderful there.
Phil
And remember. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one but they should rarely be shown in public....
Keep up the good work. My wife and I are enjoying your trip vicariously while we finish putting two kids through college waiting for our turn on our boat. Jay
These are some amazing pictures, very high quality - whoever's behind th camera has talent. Makes me want to jump on the boat right now. What the hell, I'm reaching for my life jacket now :)
Jule: You're right about the foie gras. To be honest, I didn't even had an idea of how the foie gras industry functioned before someone was mentioning it on the blog for some months ago. Now I know more and I will def. be more conscious regarding my choice in eating/not eating it in the future.
Reiss: It is a Shimano Tiagra 50W LRS reel, although they look very similar to the Penn Internationals.
Regarding this fish pictured: I was too tired to cook that evening (although it would have been perfectly enough for us five) when we got back so we sold the fish to a fisherman who most probably would sell it further to a restaurant. We went thereafter to a restaurant in the marina with our friends and had a nice meal where most of us enjoyed a traditional French moules frites (with locally caught mussels). Was delicious too.
For Jule: great point with foie gras, I should have written back then.
For Anonymous that suggests that I should get a life: not sure why you assume that I don't have one, just because I posted a comment on Taru's blog? I see you do the same. Or just because I am vegan or that I love animals, I am not sure I understand. Be more specific Anonymous.
For Jennifer: yes I appreciate and understand Taru's comment, we are all entitled to our opinion, that is the reason I express mine.
For Patrick: you know how they say: never preach to the choir, what would be the point? Why should I post this on a vegan blog? As I said I did not post this to make Taru vegan or something, I just posted to say that these pictures with fish getting killed, are as ugly as the fact itself.
".....I just posted to say that these pictures with fish getting killed, are as ugly as the fact itself."
Patricia, I'll just have to observe that rudely interrupting a SAILING blog to impose your "religion" on us is just as ugly as what the Taliban are doing to the citizens of Afghanistan.
Anonymous: Taru's blog is not only about SAILING, it is also about FOOD, as we can see in many images. I feel sorry that you see my comments as an interuption, but you have to accept that there are people that see things differently than yourself, and they can express their opinions as much as you can.
Being vegan is not a religion, and I do not want to impose this on you or any others. Eat whatever you want: fish, cats, poodles... and get used to the fact that not everybody shares your view.
I understand this to be a Blog about Lifesyle. Taru & Alex gave us a large impression of opinions and the way to change life while living it. Even though I might disagree in some of their believes, I always find statements to think about or to compare with my way of thinking. Sometimes I say yes, sometimes no - but this is up to all of us.
Emotionaly, I was sorry with the fish - but not because of a certain reason. I thought a lot of it, and I think I was sorry because it was green and because of the description of the fighting. If it was a silver-gray one, it would not have been a problem.
So again I learned something about judgement and perspective. Keep on sailing, folks. There is so much to learn for all of us.
I absolutely disagree with the ashole-statement. Opinions and experiences have to be public, that is lifestyle too. How should we develope a culture of learning from each other, without making statements.
Sorry for my bad english tonight. Too much greek foot in Germany. Stay well.
Fantastiska bilder! Underbart, på återseende, hit återkommer jag, det kan jag lova!
@ Stefan: well said. Was exactly in the same "zone" of thinking. Thank you.
Though I have never fished myself, I live a few hundred yards from a fishermans village (SL) and have a system of interchanging attendance against fresh fish. Great.
@ J.G. Ross: I back your thoughts. But only possible after I had moved away from the big city,
@Alex+ Taru: Smooth Sailing! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Stefan: great post and great english from my perspective, as I am not a native speaker either.
I absolutely agree that we all have lot to learn and question our decisions and our way of seeing things.
Man is a creature of habit, so we should never stop questioning.
Anonymous 3.23.2011 3:34 pm --
jeeze, overstate much?
I don't agree with Patricia, but comparing a few cantankerous comments (which the bloggers could simply have blocked, had they chosen to) to the Taliban is a mighty, mighty stretch.
@ Fred:
Ich habe eine Weile überlegen müssen, welche Nationalität SL wohl ist ... Slowenien?
Wie spaßig. Ich habe auch SL auf dem Auto-Nummernschild. Auf manche Dinge kommt man nicht so leicht :-)
Was meinst Du mit "a system of interchanging attendance against fresh fish."?
Ich hab' nach einem Kontakt-Link auf Deinem Blog gesucht. Nicht gefunden ... Wenn Du magst
-> www.vorlauf.de
Sorry Taru & Alex for being off-topic - Whenever you will sail the Baltic Sea, you shout be prepared. Beware of the Vikings - they are already here. (And a lot of folks like us)
ciao, Alex nice catch!! what rod is it?, nice action, bravo
keep postin!
