My father was a fisherman. At first I didn't want to be one.
I ended up going out to sea with him one day,
and realized that it suited me.
We still had the boat after he retired,
so I took over the business.
That was seventeen years ago.
I'm not a very social person.
Once a fisherman goes out to sea, they are their own bosses.
You can work at your own pace,
but it also has it's disadvantages,
like an unsteady income.
But the relationship you develop with the fish can be enjoyable,
as well as the act of leaving the port and heading into the open sea.
Above anything else, I love the ocean.
The fishermen fish with poles in the deep sea to catch
several types of fish, like sea bream,
queen snappers, blue snappers,
and flower jobfish.
It's when we reel in the fish
that causes sharks to take notice and bite into our catch.
They also destroy our fishing tools.
The sharks react and bite the fish
as we're pulling them up.
Sometimes they take the whole fish,
or leave only the head.
Or half of a body.
Then we end up with a bunch of fish with no market value.
This happens pretty frequently.
Those bastards.
They really suck.
Sorry for the foul language.
It's just frustrating.
Often times we'll fish at a particular location
and relocate as soon as we see signs of a shark nearby.
That's the only option we have.
Shark population control has been on going
for the past twenty years due to their harm on our businesses.
We hunt them once a year during summer,
around this time of the year.
We more or less catch around a hundred sharks each year.
Last year we caught eighty-eight.
We mainly hunt tiger sharks
and sandbar sharks.
The large ones are about five meters long,
and the small ones are about one to three meters long.
Most of them are somewhere between two to three meters.
Last year we caught one that weighed over 500 kg.
Recently, the sharks are increasing in size.
They normally swim at around 20 km/h,
but it gets to about 80 km/h if they see a person they want to eat.
Just be sure to bring a harpoon or two with you and you'll be fine.
Are you stupid? Don't underestimate the speed of a shark.
Is there a shark?
It's huge.
Don't get on that boat. I can't see it.
Where did it go?
Over there.
I saw its shadow.
You have to stab the shark five or six times
in order to let it bleed out quickly.
Otherwise, your harpoon will get stuck.
The muscles stiffen up and locks onto your harpoon.
Sharks tend to roll over when they get stabbed.
So you have to stab it quickly.
Then, stab it again when it weakens. Large ones can be tough to kill.
If you catch a big one tomorrow, you should use this.
The lighter harpoons won't cut it. You need a heavy one like this.
You have to aim for the back of their heads.
This area right here.
They'll usually die once you stab their brain tissue,
but it'll be difficult since they'll be moving around a lot.
Smaller sharks are much easier. It's just that the large ones can be very difficult.
Actually, some of these sharks are considered endangered species,
but we can only see them as pests.
My guess is their population will continue to grow.
Recently, they've been appearing
in places they didn't appear in before.
Until a few years ago,
we never saw them in the deep sea where queen snappers are.
Recently, however,
they're eating up all the queen snappers.
Queen snappers and ruby snappers usually swim around 300 meters below sea level.
Still, the sharks find a way to eat them all.
The effects of shark hunting may last around
four or five months at the longest.
I wish we could do it every six months.
This is a harpoon.
Four years ago, I caught a 500 kg shark, the largest of the year.
I'm not a captain this year, though.
I'm just helping them load up.
You have to be experienced.
That's right.
Species like tiger sharks and sandbar sharks
are ferocious.
When they attack, it doesn't matter whether
you're a person or a fish. You're just prey.
I just hope we can target as many
of those types of sharks as we can.
Ideally, they won't be too violent.
And then I yelled, "There's the shark!"
The flow for shark hunting is
once once we load the bait and tools, we head out to the open sea.
The captain decides where we want to go.
Let's put it there.
Come around the port and get ready there.
Lower?
No, it's fine.
Should we put these over here?
Coming up is the Yaeyama Region.
Ishigaki Island and Yonaguni Island.
The forecast for Ishigaki Island today is clear skies and wind from the east.
It'll be sunny tomorrow with wind from the south.
It's sunny in Yonaguni Island today with wind from the east.
It'll be sunny tomorrow with wind from the south.
We threw our bait in the water this morning,
and we're going to check if we caught anything later today.
We'll reel in our catch,
then throw another round of bait in the water.
Then we'll come again tomorrow to see if we caught any more.
We'll reel in our catch early in the morning tomorrow,
and head back to the port before noon.
At that point, the shark hunt will end.
That's the schedule.
Since we only do it once year,
we can only catch a few of them.
We can't get rid of all of the sharks.
Even if we caught a lot of sharks,
sharks from a different location
will move in after a few months.
Sharks have an awareness about their territories,
so even if we deplete a certain area of sharks,
other sharks will come and claim the territory as their own.
I don't think we can catch them all,
but by catching the ones we do,
we can make a decent living for the following month or two.
That's the reason why we do it.
People work to make a living,
no matter the occupation.
When things go well,
we appreciate what we have.
We appreciate what we gain. Depending on the situation,
a big catch may not necessarily mean a big paycheck.
The market is constantly fluctuating.
They got us. This is the sign of a shark.
See this?
The line is cut.
The shark ate what I caught
and bit through the fishing line.
This is what I mean.
Shark teeth are saw-like.
The shark stole our catch.
When the catch is small, they take away the whole thing.
It's likely it swallowed the hook too.
Fishing is our livelihood,
which is why we resent these sharks.
This is why we must exterminate them.
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