A Little Night Action

By Christopher McMaster

Fishing in the future takes more than a net! Three stories to whet your appetite. Stay tuned for Pirates Come Down, released February 22, 2022.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Southern Skies Publications
• Release date: Jan 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201584436

Book preview

Benthic Material

As the narrator describes, benthic material is found on the ocean floor. In this story, he tells some trainees what got hauled up ...

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Weirdest thing I ever caught?

Of course, they would ask that. They just spent a whole day on non-quota by-catch. Corals, sponges, plants, molluscs, wood, rocks. Anything that the net of a bottom trawler hauls up with its catch has to be recorded. Bottom trawling can be very harmful to the sea floor, so all the pictures and notes they’ll be taking are a part of trying to mitigate that.

Stories abound. One of the most popular involves a washing machine. It’s illegal to dump any rubbish into the ocean, so the fishing boat had to take the rusty, scum encrusted thing with them and land it with the rest of their catch.

It’s okay, the government fishery observer told the skipper. It won’t count as part of your quota. Funny guy, if it ever, really, happened.

That will cost you another pint, I answered.

They burst out laughing as a trainee arrived at that exact moment with a tray full of pints. He placed one in front of me, a tall guy who said his name was Mike, but everybody called Tree.  Now I was stuck. I nodded my thanks to Tree, picked up the pint and took a