Fish Auction

Off to a slow start this morning as Stew’s lines were twisted, first time this has happened in a while. Usually from the time we get into the dinghy to actually getting going in the direction we want to travel it takes us about 20 minutes. Today it was an hour. When we rig up, we have the lines already attached to the kite, and unwrap them into a bucket. Once the kite is pumped up, we then swim upwind, unravelling the lines until they’re taught. This means that if there is a twist, the first time you find it is when you’re swimming with the kite in the water. Usually this is due to the bar being accidentally passed through the lines and you can re-thread it to fix it, taking about 5 minutes to correct. But unfortunately today something funny had happened, so he had to wrap all but one line up, then untangle it while he was in the dinghy. All this bother gave me lots of time to watch the two Skuas that kept circling around above us. (Large brown sea birds, that often pray on young puffins or other small birds, but were very curious about us, landing almost on the rib at some point.)

Despite the delay this morning, we safely made it across to Kinlochbervie today, our first landing on the Scottish mainland after being on the islands for a week. We were not the only arrival today. A large fishing boat had also arrived, and the local fish auction was held at 16:00. I’ve been to Billingsgate in London, where a lot of the restaurants go to buy their fish, but never to a local fish market. All the fish were lined up in boxes, arranged in columns by type and size of the fish, 480 boxes in total. The merchants were then inspecting the columns, picking up random boxes to check their weight and to shuffle the ice aside slightly to more closely inspect the catch. Once they’d had a good look the auction started. There were only 4 merchants there, and for the ones I saw only two in each bidding. Just like any other auction I’ve been to the auctioneer was rapidly firing off numbers. You could hardly see the nods from each buyer. In the end a box of 20 monkfish went for £200, and a box of ~10 large Coley was £40.

Down the other side of the fish hall there were two people carefully inspecting a box of salmon. I was later told that this was the fishery department making note of the size and age of the fish. Apparently they’re only here about once a month, gradually making their way around each port. But for a whole box of over 20 salmon, each fish was carefully measured, and then a small bone was removed from between it’s eyes. Similar to how tree trucks have rings which tell you it’s age, apparently this bone has the same thing. These numbers are carefully recorded to help keep track of fish supplies. I never knew that! Wonder if humans have anything similar?

Otoliths (ear stones) are found in the head of all fish other than sharks/rays. These pearly white stones are about the size of a pea, and can be found in the fish’s skull just below the rear of the brain. They aren’t attached to the skull, but rather float beneath the brain inside the soft, transparent inner ear canals.

Otoliths are rocks, not bones. This property makes them more durable than bone, resulting in new material being added to the outside surface through time, but existing material never being removed. 

Different fish species have differently shaped otoliths, meaning biologists examining seal and bird stomachs can use them to determine the type and size of fish they ate.

Map of today’s route

Map Key: Stew (Red), Islay (White) and Mentor (Blue)

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