Left - Phill holding up catch of the day - Simon in back with more fish
Right - Phill & Simon showing off fish again back at the house ready for cleaning and freezing
Palmerston - Gone Fishing
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Phill & Bill ("Piet Heyn") went fishing with Simon for a couple of hours and caught some wonderful fish. After we got back we had to help clean and prepare the fish for the flash freezer. We donated the fish to the islanders for there store house. We did of course have a wonderful fish fry that day on some of the catch. They don't waist any part of the fish. The heads are saved, frozen, and used for fish stew and the other great dishes they have concocted over the years.
Everyone on the island has a freezer somewhere. Some have several well stocked freezers. They rely heavily on generators and freezers to survive. We were there during there winter and it was still very hot. I can only imagine how hot it must get in the summer, and that the freezer is a life line to survival.
We caught Yellow fin Tuna and Barracuda. The rest of our hosts went reef fishing. They caught Blue Headed Parrot fish. At the bottom of the page you can see that every one is involved in the cleaning, and preparing of the fish for the flash freezer. The fish is flash frozen within a matter of just a few hours of being caught. It's sold to Rarotonga restaurants. Some even makes it all the way onto New Zealand restaurant tables. Quite a delicacy there, everyday food here!
Jerry went Parrot fishing on the reef with Simon and Edward another day. Please read her account of this as I think it has to have been one of her highlights of Palmerston Island. She couldn't stop talking about her adventure for weeks.
The Blue Headed Parrot fish is one of the best tasting fish I have ever had.
Left - Phill holding up catch of the day -
Simon in back with more fish
Right - Phill & Simon showing off fish again back at the house ready for cleaning and
freezing
Left - Bill ("Piet Heyn") with one
of his catch - Simon in background with more fish
Center - The catch of the day being carried in the wheel barrow back to the house for
cleaning and freezing
Right - Simon holding up one of the Barracuda fish caught that day
Left - Production line style efficiency in
cleaning and filleting the fish ready for flash freezing
Right - Bill packing the fish prior to flash freezing
Bill fixing the wiring on the flash freezer
(Bill is very proud of his flash freezer that the whole island shares in)
Left - Alex and Bill in front of the open
doors of the flash freezer
Right - Bill in front of flash freezer - You can see they have started to fill the shelves
with boxes of fish
They even freezer the heads of the Parrot fish for stock and stews