Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish

By G. Bruce Knecht



I’m a fan of calling things by their given name. I guess it’s my form of snobbery. O’Shea Jackson, Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr, yeah rappers never go by their real name. Chilean Sea Bass? No, try Patagonia Toothfish. Hell at the rate that the fishermen are pulling these things out of the sea you’re getting a toothfish but who know what kind. Personally I like toothfish better than sea bass but what do I know?

Remember Orange Roughy? I do. We used to eat it a couple of times a month. A white fish - white because it lives in the deep, moves slowly, for a long time, and doesn’t reproduce fast- not much flavor, but we squeezed lemon on to it. Not so much Orange Roughy in the stores anymore. Hooked is a fascinating book. You know in today’s world were are pretty disconnected from where our food comes from or even what it’s made of. See Twinkie. That said Hooked captivated me. It’s a little bit like two books in one. Part talks about how the toothfish was discovered and marketed. Things don’t really become popular by accident you know. Hey even ice for drinks was originally given away until people go a taste for cold drinks. The demise of current popular fish combined with the abundance of toothfish caused the toothfish to explode into the culinary scene. The numbers are staggering. Fishermen pull an enormous amount of toothfish out of the sea every year. Long line fishing can net a ship 100,000 fish or more in a year.

Oh yeah the other part of the book is a police chase. A boat chase that travels almost around the entire southern hemisphere. Countries can declare fishing rights out to 250 miles or more from their borders. Small island territories included. But they have to enforce it. An Australian ship catches up with some possible poachers. They give chase. The chase last months. Months!!!! As long as they keep the poachers in sight (or on radar) they can keep pursuing them. Finally they bring in South African Mercenaries (mostly armed security guards who don’t have their sea legs) to board the fishing ship when they finally catch up with it.

So far this has been an excellent story. Informative. A boat chase that while it’s not exactly riveting it makes for a page turner. But, yeah of course there is a but, this story is based on real life. Which isn’t very glamorous. The poachers (excuse me) fishermen, get off and can go back to fishing. The Australians are thinking of retrying the case. A big let down but I guess that’s real life.