How to Fish like an Iraqi on ABOT

Aharon, you will be pleased (I hope). It is with great excitement that I present to you (and everyone else) the simple, easy 5-step process for fishing in the North Arabian Gulf. Even better- no pesky, expensive, easy to break/hard to work fishing poles required!

So, without further ado: How to Fish Like an Iraqi on ABOT.

Step 1: Make sure you have plenty of fishing line wound around a piece of wood. Ping-pong paddles work nicely. Ensure that you anchor the other end of the string with something. Not sure what they use (didn't feel like diving into the water to find out)





Step 2: Lower fishing line into water.

Step 3: Tie fishing line to unstable hand rails. Repeat. (If you look carefully, you can see like 5 lines hanging down

Step 4: Wait. Hang out with Friends. Pose for pictures. (Note: this guy spoke ZERO English. I tried to explain to him that my brother-in-law was interested in how they fish on ABOT so I wanted to take some pictures. All I think he really got was that some girl wanted to take his picture. I'm 99.7% sure he now thinks I like him. I will probably have 3 marriage proposals by the end of this now)

Step 4: Pull up on fishing line.

Here you can see the  guy pulling up on the line.

Complete steps 1-5. Repeat. Continue for weeks on end.

I'm not sure what they actually catch because I haven't seen. Apparently the fish right in the exclusion zone around the OPLATs are really good because it is one of the only places in the Arabian Gulf where the fish get to mature to full size, since fishing dhows are not allowed inside.  That being said, I have seen the waste and fuel and food and chemicals that is dumped into this water that the fish feed on. You couldn't pay me to get near one of those fish with a 10 foot (fishing) pole (sorry... lame joke....)

Anyways. I kept my camera in my pocket for about 3 days to get these pictures. Most of them were taken between where I live and where I work. This is not an area that the SOC workers populate but some of them venue down to our end becuase there is apparently more fish here (becuase the Americans are WAY too grossed out to even think about fishing here). Some of them were even taken from my balcony. I will be on the look-out for some real fish. Every week, the Iraqi invite 5 Americans down to their end of the terminal for lunch. It's a big game of "NOT IT!" to see who gets "voluntold" to go to lunch there. (Luckily, standing the 12-6pm watch everyday disqualifies me. Bummer....) The joke is always "Don't eat the fish at lunch!"

Anyways. Enjoy and hope everyone is gearing up for a great Halloween next week. I would love to see pictures (especially of all of the munchkins!)

Love,
M