Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Something fishy going on





Having stopped for a quick picture of the sunrise and some geese in Mill Valley this morning, I was wholly unprepared to stop for additional footage.  But the excitement in Sausalito was something that I have never seen in my life.  As I stopped, annoyed by the stop light on Bridgeway by the Starbucks, there was obviously some commotion ahead with lots of birds and what sounded a bit like gunshots (maybe the gunshots was the Metallica – One playing in my head phones, anyways).  Rounding the corner, I was introduced to thousands of pelicans in the water, just jamming themselves full of some sort of fish.  Further investigation revealed a few dozen fishing boats and more than a few fishermen on the shore tossing nets.


 I pulled my bike to the side and grabbed my phone to snap some footage.  I wish I would have gotten this conversation on tape.  Imagine the gnarliest Irish fisherman you have ever seen and a Philippine, toothless fisherman tossing the net from the shoreline.  The Phillipine was literally throwing an empty net into the Bay, counting to ten, and then pulling a net full of hundreds of little fish onto shore.  His partner in crime would take the orange bucket to the truck, and repeat.  My guess is that they would have a truck full of fish within a half hour.  Not to mention the millions of fish that were getting pulled out by the commercial boats and the pelicans.



In my best Fat Bastard Accent, “Jesus fu&*ing Christ, man.  What the f&*k is going on here?  I have been fishing the Bay for going on thirty years, Man.  And I have never seen anything like this in my entire life! What the f&*k are those things?”

In my best broken Asian English the Philippine raises up three finger s and says, “Three days”

FB:  “Three days?  What the hell are they?  Smelt?  Anchovies?”

AE:  “Three days.”

FB:  “Holy sh!t, Man.  Wait until I show these pictures to my kids.  What the f&*k?!?”

And that was it .. the Phillipine dude just went back to hauling fish from the Bay.  Surreal on so many levels.


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