a hot winter day - part 2

Weather permitting, Bermudian fishermen advertise their FRESH BERMUDA FISH sign in the morning by the road side and then go out way yonder to eventually return back to shore with all kinds of fish. Customers trickle in at around 4:00 pm, but not before the fishermen have completed the process of fillet'ing & divvying up the fish. Unfortunately, because of this method, the discarded remains, in my opinion, are a waste, that could ordinarily be consumed. (Unlike in South America and many other countries, it's very rare to have a whole fish served up to you, here in Bermuda. This is probably because fillets are what's in demand at the restaurants. They are the fishermen's top buyers, fetching them quite a pretty penny per pound.

After my trip to the Flatts Inlet (in the previous post), I made my way to Devonshire Bay, where I sighted a couple local fishermen. I always like to see their spoils and I think this stems from my young Bombay days when my grandmother would take me to the fish market. Spread out before me were Mackrels (Bangda), Kingfish (Surmai) and not to mention Bombay Ducks (Bombil) - which by the way is only available in Bombay and is the tastiest fish in the world. In addition to these, there would be racks of Prawns, Shrimps and Crabs. You know that fish market smell that most hate? Well, that brings back so many wonderful memories for me (yes, I know it's weird, but I don't care!).

Ordinarily, Bermuda's fishermen will in any given day, catch Snappers, Groupers, Breams and maybe a Spanish Hogfish or two. But this was no ordinary day. While I arrived a little too late, the catch for the day that had already been filleted was, get this: Barracuda! I glanced over at their discarded bucket and sure enough, there were Barracudas in there. While all I could see were their heads for the moment, one of the fishermen was kind enough to humour me and hold a couple up with part skeletal remains, so I could freeze frame him and the Barracuda forever. Well, I did ask him to and so, brace yourself. I have included this pic in the collage and it's not pretty, but what story is ever complete without including all the guts and glory. The fishermen also caught Barber Fish, which I have never seen. It was definitely out of the ordinary for these two species of fish to be caught and readied for sale. My landlady, MsStopYourNoise, was skeptical of the whole thing, when I related the story to her. Only because she wasn't sure if many on the island actually eat Barracuda, especially if they knew what it was and was wondering if they (the fishermen) would try to pass it off as something else. I doubt it. Did you have a look at the Barracuda bait? It's at least eight inches long. Those fishermen were prepared, they were on a Barracuda mission. I'm sure its tastes just as good, although I have yet to remember seeing Barracuda on the menus here. I've had shark and it tasted pretty good to me, so Barracuda mightn't be all that different, right?