44 #Foreveryoung

I had a lovely birthday with lunch together as a family beside the river in the sun, a facial with a good friend and then a wonderful weekend at a spa hotel on the coast with El Puma. 

Plus my awesome cake!

Live in the sunshine #Maldives

The Maldives: islands in the Indian Ocean best known as a honeymoon destination, or in my case, the home of pole and line (one-by-one) tuna fishing...and me for 1 week.

There were a number of reasons why my PhD student who is researching fisher wellbeing there needed by support, but I can appreciate that most of you won't believe a word of it. I had expected there to be no down-time at all, but in the end, we did get a few breaks between meetings and a swim or two.

My flights took me from Nantes via Madrid, Doha and Malé (the capital) and straight to the Lamu Atoll, where one of the largest tuna processors is based. These islands are local and don't have a resort of them, but our 'slumming it' accommodation was affordable and beautiful (note to all those paying a fortune to stay in a resort).

 

 

Staying on the atoll allowed us to spend a few days interview fishers, visiting the processing factory, and meeting with Lara's funders. As we were visiting at the same time as a buyer and potential buyer, the factory pulled out all the stops and we managed to hang on to the coat tails long enough to get some money shots during an early morning snorkelling trip.

 

 

After the trip with the buyers:

We weren't able to take pictures inside the processing plant, but it was fascinating to see the process a tuna goes through before making it into a can. It's easy to forget that tuna are prepared and filleted by hand through a complex and time-consuming process, usually undertaken by women. Although conditions are good, they are not that easy, and it for sure makes me look at my food quite differently - and definitely think twice about food waste given all the energy gone into making that food.

Below is a photo of skipjack tuna arriving at the quayside after being fished in the Indian Ocean, around 100km away from the processor. It is stored in ice on board and transferred into these cages to get them off the boats. 

They are then taken into the factory, washed, pre-cooked, allowed to cool and then stored until processed. 

When it comes time to use them, they are headed and peeled (they are gutted at sea), bones and skins removed, and then filleted into chunks. They are then added to cans with water or brine and then cooked, sterilised, cooled, packed, labelled and stored.

  

Most interviews took place on fishing vessels either while they were waiting to unload or once they had unloaded and had a little free time to clean the vessel and prepare to leave again. Trips lasted on average one week and returned to shore just before Friday prayers.

Baitfish used to attract the tuna (left) and a yellowfin tuna (on the right)

 

Getting around the islands:

From there we returned to Malé for more interviews and an afternoon off to look around this amazing island, and its new extension built out of the sea, plus the airport.

Taking the ferry between the 'new' and 'old' islands for about 10p. Not the most popular mode of transport despite the low cost. Malé is one of the densest islands on earth with far, far too many cars for its population.

Malé is a really interesting place in itself, although most people skip it and head straight to the resorts.

  

 

 

 

It's also quite a strict muslim country so no alcohol or pork and we had to cover up all the time. Helps with the sun protection also!

Like with many islands and developing countries, efforts are being made to reduce, reuse, recycle (like these glass bottles acting as borders) but plastic remains a huge issue, especially at sea (right photo).

 

Overall it was a really fascinating trip from both a research and personal point of view. And if you're going to buy tuna, buy pole and line!