Page 9 - German article - UK translation

“We always concentrate on one species”, explains a representative of the fishermen.
This is relatively simple: the shoals of one species usually stay among themselves. The
fishermen at Apasa specialise in skipjack and white tuna. Even the latter is not
considered threatened, at least in this part of the Atlantic. Especially not by the
method used here with rod, line and hand, also called pole and line, hand line or
fishing rod. Because it is a very selective method.

“We sort out the small fish and never kill a whole shoal”, says the man from the co-op,
where Redfern buys his fish.

Redfern’s fishermen do not use bait on the hook, instead they use a trick: if the fishing
boat spots a school of tens of thousands of these tuna-like species it first sprays water
from above. The shower on the surface of the sea simulates the movement of a shoal
of sardines or smaller mackerel. Then the Portuguese toss the predators a few
specimens of its favourite prey in front of their always hungry mouths. The shoal
freaks out, the animals jump around wildly, the water bubbles like fish soup. In a
frenzy, the skipjacks snap at the bait fish - and at the hooks on simple bamboo rods.
Then the men pull one after the other out of the sea with a powerful jerk. And throw
them in an arc behind them onto the deck. There they quickly suffocate. There’s no
time for a redemptive blow.

On Faial’s neighbouring island of São Jorge, in the Santa Catarina fish factory Redfern
then has his fish processed. Fish weighing about 2.5 kilos are turned into 160-gram
preserves that can be kept on the shelf for at least four years. The factory employs 137
people, including 109 women. It is medium sized for Portugal, small for Europe, but
the island’s largest employer.