The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 classic story, The Old Man and the Sea, recounts an epic battle of wills between an old, experienced fisherman and a giant Marlin said to be the largest catch of his life.

I thought of the story as I watched Don Pablo, an 89 year old Belen native as he sat for hours staring at a Blue Marlin we caught. Don has fished Panama’s Caribbean coast near Belen his whole life, but never caught or even seen a Blue Marlin. As he sat, staring, it was almost like the two were having a private conversation. I just kept wondering what was going on in his mind.

Here’s the backstory.

One of our groups was out fishing near our Lodge, about 5 kilometers offshore, when one of the reels screamed into action. All eyes followed searching for the end of the line. A split second later, a Blue Marlin double jumped and then dove deep. The fight started out normal and lasted about 30 to 40 minutes. But we soon realized something was up when it all of sudden just gave up. As we pulled the Marlin to the surface we realized it “tail-wrapped the line” and had been pulled up backwards. Water needs to flow through the gills, mouth first. Unfortunately, because the line got caught around its tail, water was forced backwards through the gills causing it to drown.

Everyone on board was deeply saddened by the event. The usual excitement of a big catch was replaced with quiet reflection. We knew pictures were not appropriate.

As a general policy, all Billfish caught by Lodge crew or guests are immediately released after a quick photo, with few exceptions. But this was one of those exceptions.

We decided to bring the Marlin back and hung it on our bragging board, but no photos were taken. As Don Pablo sat staring at the Marlin, we began to think of a way to redeem this tragedy. We felt we needed to turn this negative into a positive. Then a creative idea hit us.

We decided to cut the fish into six pieces and take the pieces to six local Indian fishermen who regularly fish Tarpon to eat. And we made a deal. One piece of Marlin for a promise to release the next Tarpon they caught. All of them agreed.

One fish died tragically, but six more will live in his honor!

The whole experience got us thinking about how we can better promote fishing conservation among the local community. We’ve made plans to make fish tanks to raise Talapia in order to supply the local Indians with this species in exchange for not fishing and eat sports fish such as Tarpon and decrease the practice of netting smaller fish to bait larger sports fish.

It was a group effort to land the fish. And it was the same group’s efforts to feed the families of half a dozen local fishermen in exchange for the release of six more game fish in the future!

Scutt