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Re: Re: Pet fish


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Posted by patrick on September 16, 2005 at 18:52:36:

In Reply to: Re: Pet fish posted by Chris on September 16, 2005 at 16:56:16:

Perhaps the most egregious abuse of this kind that I witnessed, was perhaps two years ago. A weekday evening had me riding my bike down by the launch ramp at Marina del Rey – an area known for the quantity and quality of odd-balls and unthinking a-holes – I saw three guys in about knee deep water struggling with lines connected to something out in the water. Curious, I stopped, thinking it was some legitimate effort that I might help with..
“Whad’ya got there?” I asked.

“Beeg feesh”, came the reply from one of the foreign guys.

Staring into the glare of the setting sun, it was initially difficult to see exactly what was on the lines, but to my horror, I finally made out their catch. It was a huge mola mola. It was one of the biggest I’d seen in So. Cal.

“Hey,” I said. “You can’t eat that!”

“Fook you!” was the less than congenial reply. “We eat feesh.”

The creature was still very much alive, and had it been able to turn from its side to its normal swimming position, I believe it could have swum away.

Being outnumbered, I backed off and called We Tip, and was asked by a machine to please leave a message. I called the local sheriff station, just up the street, and was made to feel like an ass trying to explain to the officer on the phone what was going on. The short story was they weren’t interested.

They dragged that mola, still flapping, into the back of a small pickup, and the fish’s dorsal fin was hacked off with something the size of a machete so that it didn’t stick out into traffic. I went to take a license number to push this with F&G, but the tailgate was down covering the plate, and the front bumper was bare.

The anger I felt as they drove off with that fish was scary – truly, I would have shot someone had the means been at hand. The frustration of the whole thing gnaws at me even this long after the event. I was pissed at them of course, but little less at the F&G, and our minions of law and order. And myself as well since there was nothing I could do about it.

I’m sorry I brought it up – just thinking about it has blown my evening.

I sort of hope they did eat it… and died from some excruciatingly painful parasitic infestation.

Stay wet



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