In other avian news, our peregrine falcon tenants have departed, and so have our little lover birds (unfortunately for them, at least one is in the digestive system of the falcons.) We saw some more gorgeous dolphins today, although only a few, who once again came to play in our bow wave. It's getting warmer here, so warm that I worked on deck outside for most of the day, and dragged myself away from the computer to use the archaic pen and paper system. "You've really caught the sun," Jim told me. (I think that's British for "You look sunburnt".) We are working hard, planning, meeting, and writing, to prepare for our next few days in Pusan and Ulsan, where we are going to release the results of our scientific survey. The media attention, so we hear, has been hotting up, and Jim says we were all on Korean TV earlier in the week as part of a TV special on the issue. This is good to hear, although there has been a lot of talk about how we are "against" fisherman. I don't think that's very fair, so I'm going to tell a story I heard at lunch today. (Speaking of lunch, I also found out today why I have been ravenously hungry. Apparently, because the ship is constantly moving, your muscles have to compensate, so you are exercising even in your sleep. Even if it's not true, fantastic excuse for eating more of our cook Amanda's delicious food isn't it?)

Anyway, back to the story. Our captain, Derek, used to be a fisherman. In fact, he was a professional fisherman for 10 years, in New Zealand, catching Red Snapper. I found the description of his job fascinating - he said that it was a very precise art. Japanese fishermen came and taught them how to use a special spike to put through the fish's brain. This meant that the fish would stay bright-eyed and stop the blood from staining the fish's flesh so it was a perfect white for the market. Then the fish would be put in a mixture of salt water and ice to make their skin nice and red. After this they would be laid in batches of 10 on trays, and within the same day were on sale in Japan. He said that over time he and his colleagues worked out exactly which stretches of water, at which time, were the best and some days he could bait 1000 hooks and end up with 1000 fish. When these fish were at premium price they could fetch up to $60 each. But, Derek said, he could see t

he industry decline as the fishing intensified, to the point where the government had to introduce fishing quotas. "I had to keep records of my catches, I could see them going down," he said. "But fishermen have blinkers on - I had blinkers on." I was thinking of this as I sat on deck this afternoon and watched the fishing nets glide past, flag after flag, buoy after buoy. I understand that fishermen just want to make a living, but it defeats the purpose if soon there will be no fish left. There's no such thing as cash and chips is there? So we need to work out ways to make sure fishing is sustainable, so there's enough fish for humans, enough livelihood for fishermen, and a clean and healthy ocean. I guess Derek understands that better than any of us.