Squid Fishing with Eco-Hooligans

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Any Idiot can hit a fastball if he knows its coming. My job is to teach you when to look for it and how to hit the curveball.

- Penn State Professor Clemente P.h.d. Sociology

When we first heard that we’d be able to go for an overnight trip, consisting of seven dives over two days, it was agreed, done and done. The fact that the dive company we signed up with was using a converted squid fishing boat was even better news as we were told that most of the night would involve squid fishing. I had no idea what squid fishing consisted of but it sounded cool, besides, catching your own calamari had its own allure that I couldn’t dismiss. Our only reservations were that we had to be in Bangkok on Monday in order to get visas for India, so our dive master helped us book the dive trip in accordance with these wishes with a friend at a travel agency in Haad Rin Koh Phang Ngan.

The plan: Leave Koh Phang Ngan at sunrise, ferry to Koh Tao where the boat was docked. From Koh Tao, head north in the Gulf of Thailand towards some awesome dive sites. Four dives the first day followed by a night of Squid Fishing and then three more dives the second day. We managed to book a ferry to Mainland Thailand that would connect us with an overnight train that would arrive in Bangkok in time to go to the Indian Embassy as it opened in the morning. If this sounds like it fit together all too well, that’s because it did and the amount of time we took planning this short bit of travel would take twice as much time to replan after it all went to hell….

But without any prior knowledge of the travel difficulties we were to face after the dive trip, we set out for some of the best diving of my new found diving career. The running joke between Royal, our Dive Master and I was that we wanted some spear guns to go fishing with. There was no way in hell that we were going to be given spear guns for insurance reasons, but our dive master was no more than five years older than us and his attitude was one of ultimate relaxation. There was a reason he left England for the laid back lifestyle afforded in a dive shop in Thailand. Karl, after entertaining the idea with us for a little while, eventually conceded that the boat only had one spear gun and if we were going spear fishing, he was going to be the one that takes the glory.

As it turns out, I breathe a lot underwater. In nearly every dive Royal and I have done thus far, I’ve just about emptied my tank (that’s bad) while everyone had ample air left for a second mini-dive of sorts if they chose to do so. After passing a school of baby Barracudas just before the end of the final dive of day one, we surfaced and Karl immediately motioned to the deckhands for his spear gun. Royal was apparently low on air so neither of us was able to submerge again and witness our first spear-hunt, but only moments later, Karl resurfaced with some type of fish he said was a part of the Grouper Family. I should note at this here that during our dive lessons on Ko Lipe, we were taught never to interfere with the marine life during our dives. Leave the fishing to the fisherman and the observing to the scuba divers. Any diver that chooses to interact with the marine life is therefore known as an Eco-Hooligan though its inevtible that at some point during your dive, you play around with a fish or a sea urchin or something just to make the dive that much more interesting. In this case, all I wanted was just one shot at a Barracuda, but nooooo, he gets the glory and provided us with a late afternoon snack…

Before dinner and squid fishing, we got to go on a night dive which was absolutely awesome. For those that are totally freaked out by the idea of scuba diving, multiply your fears by one thousand when it comes to night diving. Though you can only see straight ahead through your mask during the daytime, the same remains when it comes to night dives, but you are completely tunnel visioned as all you see is what you shine your tiny little flashlight on. I was expecting to see a multitude of night crawlers and nocturnal fish that came out underneath the moon, but all we really saw was one gigantic puffer fish and the beady red eyes of hundreds of miniscule shrimp tucked away inside patches of coral.

There was an exhilarating moment when we were able to stand still on the bottom of the ocean and point our flashlights inwards to our wetsuits (rule #1 of night diving, never turn off your light under any circumstances) which left us with only the lights that glowed from the marine life. There was some phosphorescent algae in the water than began to glow when agitated and the shrimp’s eyes, though small, grew in number so that the ocean floor shone like a dance floor covered with red marbles.

Finally, Squid Fishing! There’s really no reason why this was such an anticipated event other than the fact that we have been eating fresh seafood, namely squid ever since we entered Thailand and decided amongst ourselves that we need to get manly, go fishing, and eat what we catch. The Burmese deckhands that helped us with the diving had been fishing the entire time we were underwater for our night dive and caught half a dozen small squid. We got our turn immediately after shedding our equipment as they had to put down their rods in order to safely put away the tanks and such. I caught two or three smaller squid and passed the rod to Royal who caught nothing and passed the rod to Karl. Karl caught a few and passed the rod back to me. It was a nice little rotation we had with one rod as the Burmese deckhands held the second rod until someone spotted a behemoth looking squid off the other side of the boat I was casting.

One bad cast is all it took for the Burmese guy to get jealous as I swapped sides and cast my rod directly next to the ginormous squid and had him on my hook seconds later. For those who don’t know, a squid’s natural defense is ink. I think this is supposed to blind the attacker but for fisherman, it’s just a nuisance. When you catch a squid, you catch it by its mouth in the center of all its tentacles. This leaves the ink secreting section of the squid facing directly upwards and it usually inks once or twice while on the rod over the water. You want to let it ink a few times before you bring it into the boat because ink everywhere can be one great mess.

I let my giant squirt a few times before I reeled him in completely but he was still full of energy, and ink. It splooged all over the deckhand that unhooked him leaving a splash of ink the size of a huge water balloon explosion. Unfortunately for the deckhand, but fortunately for our amusement, the squid inked all over his shirt, face and the deck of the boat. This was the last squid caught that night as all the ink he secreted into the water left a very clear message for all the other squid in the water to beware of whatever was in the area.

After a solid night’s sleep on the deck of the boat, we inadvertently slept in the following morning. This caused a domino effect that would leave Royal and I at the Ko Samui airport catching the last flight to Bangkok at 10 pm. As a rule, to prevent any malfunctioning of the nitrogen in your bloodstream, you are not supposed to fly eighteen hours after a series of multiple dives. We arrived back at the dock after out three morning dives just in time to see the ferry to mainland pass us in departure. Our only option was to board a ferry back to Koh Phang Ngan, book a separate trip this time consisting of another ferry to Ko Samui and a flight to Bangkok. Instead of an overnight train, we would arrive in Bangkok with enough time to get a good night sleep but the amount of nitrogen in our blood stream might react to the altitude and kill us.

It was a tough call. Spend another in the Gulf of Thailand and risk screwing up our India visas AGAIN, or bank on invincibility and take the flight. We took the flight. I survived to write the blog. Without exaggeration, this flight was the riskiest decision I’ve made thus far on my trip, but in order to keep moving, we really had no choice. As much as I hate to use the word itinerary, we have to keep to a schedule in order to not go over budget and to see all the cities and sights we plan on seeing.

There’s a quote in Cold Mountain, the book I just finished reading whereby Inman states that he has given up on trying to expect what will happen to him from day to day. With expectation, there are three possible results. The first is disappointment because your expectations aren’t met. The second is elation at having your expectations exceeded, however unlikely and the third is having your expectations met completely which is as far from the truth as I’ve uncovered through traveling. Only when you don’t expect anything at all will you allow yourself to be surprised at the result regardless of whether the result is positive or negative. If the result is positive, good times abound, if it’s negative, that’s just another obstacle to future good times that you need to remedy as soon as possibly.

Like my professor said, I can hit the fast ball, I’m looking for all curveballs from here on out because that’s all that this world seems to be throwing me these days…

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Comments

[Rich Paolino]

I want your life. Looks and sounds like your having a great time. I will be at your Dad's office on the 20th in AZ. Take care.

[Kristen Gastler]

Hi There!
John, Just wanted to say hello. Jerry sent me your travel site. Looks amazing. I am infinitely jealous! Take Care, Kristen