The Sea Provides--Good Eats by Hand, Hook, and Spear

We have been in the Bahamas just about two and a half months and with our last week of good hunting, we realized that we've had lots of sea-provided meals in a short time, especially when we consider just how long we have stayed in national parks during that time! 

We don't eat a lot of reef fish due to ciguatera risks and personal tastes (not to mention that Nassau grouper season doesn't open until March), so we focus on lobster, conch, and pelagic fish. Here's how it's been going so far!

We didn't start hunting until we hit the Exumas this year. First up, conch in Highbourne Cay! We failed to keep count how many over our two days there as we gave some to friends, tossed some back, and ate a few.

A sweet spot of ours south of Highbourne gave us our first lobsters! (J-1; T-1)

After several weeks in the no-take Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, we found conch near Black Point Settlement.

Woo hoo! Big lobster haul on the sound side near Black Point. This was way more than we needed so we gave one to a friend as all three boats represented on the hunt worked the reef hard! (J-3)

A quick conch snack at Rudder Cay.

Two lobsters out at the Brigantine Cays (F-1; T-1) and a few (I think 2 or 3?) conch from near Lee Stocking Island.

Whoa, conch! We had another great haul near Lee Stocking.

After some time in George Town (we don't usually hunt there as there is just too much going on and way too many other hunting boaters all going to the closest legal reefs) we got crabby in Calabash Bay, Long Island!

Calabash bay continued to provide lobster! We got three on this hunt, with Trent scoring this monster! (F-1; T-2)

Fish on! We finally hooked up on some mahi mahi in the deep water between Long Island and Conception Island.

And back at Conception Island we found a few more big guys! (J-1; T-1)

Wait, did I say we don't hunt when we're in George Town? Well, conditions were decent today and Trent wanted to spear with a buddy of his...SCORE! We had a lovely lobster dinner! (T-1)

We will continue to hunt, especially in March as it's the last month of lobster season, but also the start of Nassau Grouper season! Can't wait to see how we do as the menu shifts more to fish!

~Jo, 1st Mate