The Long Walk Backwards

Mervyn Lobo - The Long Walk Backwards

The Long Walk Backwards - by Mervyn Lobo

This has nothing to do with Zanzibar but some of you might relate to it as almost everyone in Zanzibar spends time by the sea.

- - - - - ///// - - - - -

I have a secret fishing spot that is hidden in plain view.

It is on a US wildlife refuge which is patrolled by federal game wardens. Almost everyone who visits the refuge assumes that fishing is prohibited there. This is partially true. Fishing is prohibited when the whooping cranes, for whom the refuge was created, return from Canada to breed. For the rest of the year, fishing is permissible and excellent.

On the onslaught of Covid, I had to give up my then hobby and search for one with little or no human contact. A casual conversation with a game warden turned into an information mine. She told me that the spot had a mixture of delta and bay waters where mullet, which feed on plankton, swim in thousands of small schools. These mullet attract every species of fish, as mullet taste like candy to them.

Mullet live in six to twenty inches of water and range in size from three to twelve inches. I learnt how to throw a cast net, catch different size mullet and then present them live to whatever that wants to feed on them. Red drum and black drum love three-inch mullet. Larger fish like the six inchers and alligator gar love ten-inch mullet. Twelve-inch mullet, cut into one inch bleeding portions attract almost everything, including three to six-foot-long sharks.

There are sharks in the Gulf of Mexico that I had not heard of before I arrived in Texas. Shovel head sharks are plentiful by the shores and grow to around five feet before heading to deeper waters. Spinner sharks spin on a vertical axis while feeding and sometimes spin into the air when hooked. Black tip reef sharks do not bite the bait. They pounce on it with such ferocity that you will clearly see the shark's back and fin out of the water and sometimes you even hear a splash before your reel starts to spin.

Once a shark is hooked, it tries to escape by moving opposite to the direction which it is being pulled, so even if you are wadding, it is not too difficult to maneuver a shark to the shore. This process starts to get complicated only when the shark gets over four and a half feet long. At that length, their dorsal fin remains about the same size but the shark builds girth and with that, power. At this stage, most sharks also have plenty of pearly white teeth - that can pack a fatal bite.

When wadding, I lug a steel rod holder that is custom built to hold two large rods and a scoop net with a long pole. About a year ago, I saw a smaller shark attack my bait and knowing what it was, picked up the rod and slowly walked it back to the shore, a hundred yards away.

Higher up in the gems of Goan masalas, is the wonder and pleasures of ambotic. I like to immediately bleed sharks that are going to be marinated with that masala. So, I bled the shark, cut it into a few pieces and put it into my cool box. On the way back to my rod holder, I realised that the other rod had a large fish on it. This fish was swimming in a slow circle, the radius being restricted by the length of the fishing line. The rod was spinning slowly around the holder, with the bent tip showing exactly where the fish was at any one time. I knew by the strength of the pull that this bite would probably be a larger shark.

I was now stumped as to how to get to the rod holder and pick up my rod. After ten long minutes, the problem resolved itself when the shark started pulling in only one direction, taking line. That is when I hurried to the rod holder, picked up the second rod and walked that shark too back to shore.

Rays are cousins of sharks but sharks love eating rays. Just two weeks ago, on a slow day with few bites, it struck me that I had not caught any ray in the area this season. I thought then that I should be thankful for this as removing a hook from a stingray is a particularly dicey procedure when you are up to your waist in water. I once got lanced by the sting of a ray while in the water, so, believe me, I have learnt my lesson.

My fishing spot will have a maximum of four fisherman on a busy day, each wadding about a hundred yards apart. When a fisherman leaves, he usually holds up his catch and sometimes others will change their bait so as to target what is biting. This season, there were just one or two fishermen at any one time. The fishing was excellent for me, so I was trying to figure out the reason for there being less fishermen.

The main reason why people don’t return to the area is because they get rattled after suddenly spotting an alligator close to them. When you see an alligator approaching from far, it is relatively easy to gather your equipment, your catch, and get out of the water. The reason you get out of the water is because if you then hook a fish, the gator will sense the fish panicking, swim over, catch and eat it.

So, I asked every fisherman I saw this past month if they had spotted alligators or if they were not getting their usual catch. No one gave me an answer to cause concern. That is, no one gave me a repetitive answer till last week. Last week, two guys separately claimed that they had their catch trailing behind them on a stringer when they heard a splash. On turning around, they saw a large fish swimming away. Both later found that a fish on their stringer had been eaten with just one bite, with only the head left behind.

I was in eighteen inches of water yesterday when the only other fisherman in the area advised me not to go out further. When I asked why, he said that there were rumours of a lot of sharks in the area lately. I reassured him that I usually catch three or four sharks every year and continued wadding out.

Well, the first indication that it would be a memorable day came from a hundred and fifty yards away when I saw two large black fins moving slowly, parallel to the shore. Those fins belonged to two, four-hundred-pound creatures. I can't see clearly now, even when the rain has gone and at that distance, it takes me tens of seconds to identify if the fins are curved (dolphins) or triangular (sharks) so nowadays, I rely more on hearing the notes the dolphins make while exhaling, to complete my identification.

The two dolphins were looking for food. These dolphins hunt by swimming in a circle and slapping their tails on the surface of the water. By causing a ruckus, they corral their prey which eventually swim in a circle. Once that is accomplished, the dolphins start feeding by rushing through the circle. I have seen these dolphins feed as close as fifty feet away. When they are more than two, the noise they make tell all your senses that you must flee. I also have witnessed dolphins finish feeding and then swoosh on either side of me and head, almost in celebration, to the shore.

Growing up in E. Africa, there were many newspaper reports of dolphins nudging a drowning person to the shore and there were also stories of dolphins pushing more than one fisherman out to sea. These are wild mammals, capable of anything. Assuming that the dolphins of the day were content with their meal plan, I continued moving into deeper waters.

My first real surprise came when I saw a torpedo shaped object whiz past me at high speed and head into the shallow waters. It was chasing something near the surface and was leaving behind a churning sound. All sorts of fish were jumping the heck out of the way, scampering in every direction. Thinking it was some sort of three-foot long tuna, I retrieved my line quickly and cast it in the direction that I last saw the movement. Despite several casts there, there was no bite.

An hour and two fish later, the waters were calm and the air was still when I suddenly heard a big splash just behind me. Startled, I spun around and about twenty feet away was a four-to-five-foot shark making a series of very tight, super quick, figure eight turns in the space the size of a ping pong table. These movements caused the water above it to fizz. The shark was feeding on mullet, who in their panic were leaping in all directions, causing a big commotion. The ferocity and speed of the shark was awesome to watch but when the mullet disappeared, so did the shark.

Knowing that a commotion usually attracts other predators, I suddenly felt alone and vulnerable as the other fisherman was still in eighteen inches of water and a hundred yards behind me. It dawned on me that I was given three warnings, one by the fisherman and two by the sharks themselves. The question now was, do I chicken out and return to safer waters or do I catch this nuisance and personally marinate him in ambotic masala?

I believe that many of you have at some point been walking down a sunny area when the shadow of a large bird fell on you and startled you for a second. Well, I was scanning the waters in front of me when I saw this extra-large shadow of a bird, moving swiftly on the surface of the water. The shadow was flowing extremely fast, turning in convoluted movements from left to right. The bird seemed to be diving, then making quick turns in all directions as the shadow kept alternating between being large, then tiny and then large again. Finally, the shadow started heading in my direction, at an excessively fast pace. The fishing spot has plenty of large pelicans and fish vultures - so I turned my head up to see what bird was making that shadow.

There was no bird.

What I first thought was a shadow, was a six-foot long shark hunting near the surface. I only realized this when I saw it’s fin out of the water. Unlike the dolphins, this shark was not swimming by casually, looking for a meal. This was a shark working extremely hard, driven by hunger. Every time he rushed a school of fish, they started frantic movements trying to flee. When the shark missed them, he made figure eight or figure nine turns causing more confusion and turning the water above it into a white foam. The shark was working an area the size of a tennis court and I was on the edge of it.

The mystery of there being no rays this season was solved. They had all been eaten, as the sharks had taken over. Any panicky movement on my part now, would be sensed by the shark and I would be attacked. So, as the meme advises, I kept calm and kept calm. After an eternity, when there seemed to be no more movement in the water, I gently slipped my rods into the water and lifted my rod holder. The plan was to use the pointed steel shaft as a spear when the shark returned. Then I summoned up all my courage and tip toed, backwards, very, very slowly, out of the water.

On return to the shore, I was expecting the other fisherman to greet me with an, "I told you so" smirk. Instead, he welcomed me and said that his wife, a renowned wildlife photographer, had witnessed everything from the pier and was videoing my return for the past twenty minutes - in case the shark appeared again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This message has been sent to you via the KPZanzibar group.
If you reply to this message, IT WILL BE SENT TO THE ENTIRE GROUP, NOT SPECIFICALLY THE INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "kpzanzibar" group.


Hazel writes:-

Such a wondreful detailed description of what you surely have loved doing.. for a long time.
You are a master story teller.. as well as an Instructor of what to and how to and how not to.. For those willing and able to benefit from that Not me.
Other than the fact that I have eaten the most delicious Goan dishes with said gifts from the sea in them and other than the fact that I did see these creatures in the Local fish markets in Mombasa and may be on the shore in Chwaka I never had interaction with Fish.

I did see large shark in fantastic aquariums separated by a wall of gladd. Dolphins were favored in water parks .. As for gators I never encountered any in any dramatic way though we spent many days a year in South Florida..for most of th 70's ..
Thanks for taking me to the waters edge...from this landlocked home that is mine.. teeming with other life forms tho Rivers and Ocean are not far away .

This has nothing to do with Zanzibar but some of you might relate to it as almost everyone in Zanzibar spends time by the sea.

- - - - - ///// - - - - - 

Hazel writes:

Nothing like visual aids to stir up the Soul.

It has I agree "NOTHING (at ALL) to do with Zanzibar" Mervyn...

Benito Karpal Hazel have everything to do with KP Karibuni Paradise.

"If I knew you were coming I would" ? Bake a cake? na not only a cake Betty an award winning expert like Mabel would delight in doing but followed or preceded by Ambotic Goan Fish Curry Sorpotel Potato Chops hmm should I continue..all along washed down with various liquids to fuel Goan Joke Meisters - who see things as they were are and always will be as long as Goans keep Go Go Goin on an on..

They/we decendants of Goan Grandparents 1900 .. will make you a Feast in a Park near you in Canada Australia Hong Kong UK and USA and yes even in Panagii (Panjim 1900 ) while Our Twice removed Descendents in 2100 will ooh nad ahh ... at the wonders that never cease to amaze - the tourists who these days arrive on Super Luxury Steam ships (or are they solar powered?).

Maybe by then 2100 they will travel on Magic Carpets (personal space capsules - promising you taste of Thai Goa Dubai or Bali Hai the Moment you step on that "carpet"
Let your imagination Soar as you serve or are served. The very best starting now.
Karibuni!

Paradise is wherever you are with whoever you are with and Hope forever to be.
Leap Year 2024 will not only take us one hour back...but give us one whole Day to pause and think... and get through a little bit of Benny's amazing .. site so full of detail .. about our family friends...we surely can make the globe see the possibilty of a Friendly Family Always AFFA, Or Every FRIENDLY Family EH? as the Canadians say EFFE ...
NOV 11 11 11 am coming up soon.
Hazel