The Life Aquatic (2 of 2)

My 'boss' told stories of his encounters with reef sharks. He'd lived to tell, right? But I really didn't want to have to deal with that adrenaline rush. Ever thankful that I didn't need to. This doesn't mean that there weren't proxies for presence of a terrible predator nearby. I remember Malindi especially. We'd be swimming around counting fish (hey! someone's got to do it) and they'd suddenly disappear behind corals and holes, just.like.that. So you, poor bumbling human, would know something large and scary was around. And that you were currently the most visible bait. Saw a school of jacks. Beautiful (in the same way a poisonous snake is), looking very predatory, and fortunately, not crazy about the flavor of human flesh. Phew! Soon as they passed (as they looked around for the slow fish), the fish re-emerged to continue with their play.
Ran into a couple of moray eels (said to have razor sharp teeth that can bite a finger clean off your hand), and some bonafide poisonous fish. Worst of all was the stone fish. I was so chaffed when I recognized it from amongst the coral rubble! Then the lion fish which was highly visible, inviting you to just come closer... and closer...

Stonefish

Lionfish

It would be terribly remiss of me not to mention the sea urchins. Studied them... at length. (Grinning) never once was I stung/stuck by one. Ever. (Glowering) Did I hear you say wimp? I knew how to get the spines out anyway... should that ever have been an eventuality. Raw pawpaw sap. Cut open a raw pawpaw, or the pawpaw stem, smear the white 'milk' around the spines sticking into your skin. Makes it easier to extract the spines. They're like the deadly Rift Valley tribal clashes arrows: easy to enter, difficult to get out. Raw pawpaw is a 'meat tenderizer'. Honest to goodness. Just go behind Mckinnon market at coast, just past/adjacent to? Somali market, where there are vendors selling greens, mabuyu, achari, mint, mabuyu powder (a great wrinkle exterminator - according to my sister), (nasty) breadfruit, etc. Ask for raw pawpaw - papai mbichi (it's cut to resemble 'tambi' - a ramadhan delicacy), then ask what it's good for.








Sea urchin






Sardine season? Incroyable! Schools of them! The Indian Ocean version of the 'Serengeti migration' and what a sight to behold, in and above water. A streaming silver-blue river, darting here and here, ever onward. And all the fishermen going crazy! You couldn't find enough nets. You'd have to be a pretty exceptional individual (or very single dude - no wife to pressure you) not to go home with any catch during sardine season. Sardines galore! Smoked, dried, fresh, frozen, and I'm sure Wananchi Marine got some canned... (sardine season just about gives BubbaGump compe on the whole 'shcrimp' story).







Sardine hauls and predators



Had forgotten the good side of aquatic life until I met cool diver dude. Now, he's done a whole lot more than I have. Regaled me with tales of seeing a nguva/dugong/mermaid/sea cow/manatee; the best manta ray 'cleaning stations' along the African Indian Ocean coast. How cleaner wrasses have learnt to clean humans too… reminding me of the sergeant majors of Mombasa Marine Park: they hear engines approaching and swim to the surface, nip at exposed parts of you that look like they might be the bread thrown to them by glass bottomed boat operators who want to give their non-swimming clients something to see at the surface. Doesn’t hurt really, just irritating.

Want to experience it all ? Holla kando.

Talk to any East African fisherman, and he'll tell you how indescribably sweet (and medicinal) a dugong's meat is (ditto for turtle flesh). Yes, yes, the dugong is an endangered marine mammal, normally sighted only in Lamu and Bazaruto. Would I eat one? Don't you want to ask me this question when you're standing before me offering up a roast piece of dugong meat (and playing the refrain "only elephants should wear ivory/turtles wear turtle shell")? Otherwise, it'd simply be too academic a question.

The life aquatic. I thirst for it. Been landlocked too darned long.