Osprey - 11-24-2009 at 09:02 AM
Since I rarely travel anymore I can’t give you trip reports or road conditions. I do have some Baja stuff from a couple of my books. This is from A
Sensitive Sea which I wrote in 2005. In this chapter Edelmiro Jr. (Miro), who works for PESCA in La Paz, uses his clout to get his old man a job at
the new fish farm in the northern gulf.
2025
The Job
La Paz was like a steam bath on late June of 2025. Miro was sweating buckets as he guided his father through the streets and aisles of clothing
stores and booths looking for something cheap and presentable for the old man to wear. When he thought he could not go another step he found himself
in a small storefront clothing store with shirts and jeans that solved his immediate problem. The old man did not know his sizes, Miro held up the
jeans and the two shirts and asked the tiny Indian lady in the store for her advice and the prices. Satisfied he had the right stuff, he moved on to
shoes; big, broad, leather; cheap with rubber soles and heels. Socks--forget the socks. I need to be under a fan with a cold beer pronto thought
Miro.
His father would not wear the shoes; he begged, cajoled, threatened. In Spanish, to the old man Miro shouted: "you need money old man, you need this
job." Back to the streets, the old man reluctantly in tow. After twenty five minutes they stumbled on a zapateria, shoe store, with goatskin open
sandals. The old man put on the new sandals, but refused to give up the old tattered leather thongs he had obviously had to repair more than once
with wire, rope and hope.
This whole business was painful for Miro. He did not like asking his boss to go up north with them to help the old man get a new job. PESCA was a
powerful and magic name when one was looking for a job for a friend or relative. The Japanese knew how the game was played. Miro, his boss Hector
Minjares, and the old man made the two day trip to Punta Bufeo for the interview. Edelmiro was given a laborer's job...cleaning out the fish
processing bins, hauling away refuse, swabbing down the floors of the plant, helping out on the feeder boats. Edelmiro made his X on the
medical/social security/pension waiver forms, his son signed his name below, dated the documents and the deal was done. He would be just fine.
They left him there with his new jeans, two shirts, new sandals, old sandals, toiletries and some money. For the first part of his life the sea had
given him everything he needed or wanted. Now he was forced to work near the sea, with the fish but without his beloved boat. The tenuous shreds of
his dignity were held together by his sense of identity -- he was a fisherman -- a fisherman who, for now, had a temporary job, waiting to return to
the sea. He could and would endure this crazy place and these strange looking Japones, until un dia, one day, he could once again board a small boat
with net, line and the unbounded confidence of a true fisherman.
Las Islas Encantadas, the Enchanted Islands, did not look enchanting to the old man or to the directors of operations for Samhitachi Company. The
satellite map on the screen in Osaka, Japan, showed the company managers a string of small islands in a crescent forming what they hoped would be a
big pen. By placing huge plastic nets between these small islands in the northern part of the Gulf of California, they could effectively isolate
almost 90 square miles of ocean for what could be one of the world’s largest fish farms.
The Japanese were the best fish farmers in the world. As early as l950 the Japanese had built more than 2500 artificial reefs around the islands of
Japan. They were now the world leader in aquaculture. Samhitachi, a foreign trading company owned by the supergiant Hitachi Company, had extensive
commercial fishing operations in the Gulf for many years. In the spring of 2018 their attorneys obtained permits for the fish farming operations,
marine rights to the area inside the islands and complete authority to construct and operate the farm. The rights, duties and obligations of parties
to the agreements were direct and complex. In addition to the farming permit and for appropriate consideration (over 12.5 million yen) it was agreed
that the Samhitachi Company could begin to operate seven Super Longline Factory Ships in the upper and lower gulf beginning June 1, 2021. The permits
for the ships were granted for a period of five years -- no other permits would be granted for longline fishing by any other entities. It was agreed,
in principle, if not in total scope, that should the Encantada Farm Experiment prove to be a success, the Samhitachi Company would build a second farm
on the Mexican Mainland near Tiburon Island in the north gulf.
This second farm, to be constructed beginning in 2031 would be owned by the government of Mexico, and perhaps others; the farm would be operated by a
management team of specialists from the Japanese company and the Mexican government. Estimates for the cost to construct the first experimental farm
ran over 700 million yen.
There were many problems surrounding the rights of vessels in the area that might need safe harbor. Complicated gates were required to be installed
in the net system to accommodate emergencies at sea. Beginning in 2021, the company began setting the nets for the big pen and building the
facilities necessary to make dolphin fish fry from egg and sperm, culture and grow the fry, manage and feed the fish, harvest, clean, freeze and ship
the delicious white filets. It was well known that dolphin fish, in the open sea, grow at a prodigious rate, at times increasing their body weight an
amazing 10 percent per day. Mature females lay up to 400,000 eggs every six weeks. Dolphin fish produce four or five times more protein, in the same
growing period, than catfish, talapia, crayfish or carp. It was a gamble -- a 700 million yen gamble.
This new experimental farm presented unique challenges. The hatching/processing operations were not large enough to warrant nuclear power
applications. This meant propane generated motors for the huge sea pumps and flash freezers. It became necessary to build a cogenerator power
station for the facility and arrange for propane delivery. The fry required 108 huge races to hold their vast numbers and potential. The facility had
to include a docking pier for fuel ships, feeder boats and harvester boats. To reuse all parts of the fish (after the filets were removed) for food,
it was necessary to invent a substance which would bind the ground fish guts, skin and bones into appropriate size portions that would hold together
in 80 degree sea water for ten minutes. Two new kinds of weirs were invented to separate juveniles from larger fish. Tide readings were fed into the
computers and feeding times were studied for weeks. Though dolphin fish are pelagic and it had been thought their feeding habits would not be tied to
tidal action or shore based food movement, perhaps they could be trained to be tide feeders. The farmers would be able to change water movement
and/or temperature in the races to induce the habit in the fry. All this to get more food to more fish in the pen at specific feeding stations at
specific times.
bajalera - 11-28-2009 at 11:42 AM
Great plot. What happens next?
woody with a view - 11-28-2009 at 12:24 PM
are these the same dolphin that bite?
good job, Osprey! keep em coming.....