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ik mouj im mou

1976

fish include parrot fish - greenish blue ones in the middle. very good meaty fish, caught on the reef.

Two or three of us would go out with a long net at low tide. We could see the group of parrot fish feeding near the edge of the reef - right before it drops in to the ocean's depths. We would circle around the group of fish and the person in the lead would run like crazy between the fish and the reef's edge. The fish would panic. Some would swim to safety out and over the reef's edge. Some would swim 'inland' and then try to escape by swimming back out to deeper water. They were usually the unlucky ones since they would swim in to the net and be caught. We would take the fish out of the net and put them on a strip from a coconut front. Frequently it was my job to carry the string of fish. Sometimes sharks would come on to the reef flat and try and catch some of the fish. That was always rather interesting when I was the one carrying the fish! After we had caught enough fish we would take them up on to shore and gut the parrot fish. They needed to be gutted soon after catching so they wouldn't spoil. We also had to be careful of the spines on some fish since the spines were poisonous and would easily cut skin. That was a bit painful when it happened.

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Uploaded on November 30, 2008
Taken on November 29, 2008