The village of Les is a delightful place,
I was fortunate enough to stay there and work with them last year and remember the hardships they worked against by having the cyanide taken away and the thin, delicate nets to replace it.
I saw that they cut these nets short, only 8-10 feet long. Many wiley tangs and wrasses run around short nets so I asked em why they used em. As a cost cutting measure I was told. They had to budget what they had.
I had a 25 long barrier net and we caught lots of wrasses and tangs together. The main divers I worked with wanted to use it all the time. I could see early that I'd never get it out of Bali so I left it behind.
The last thing divers told me was "jaring Taiwan". Kirim jaring Taiwan.
"Taiwan netting, send Taiwan netting!"
When Ruwi came to MO in Hawaii he said he needed enough for 100 divers as the word had spread. I didn't see how we could get that much I told him...and could tell it was a unfortunate thing to hear.
'How to we give to some and not the others? " He asked.
Good point. So we got the whole shabang and thats when he said he could return home now as his mission was accomplished.
The net dealer had the one lb. delicate flimsey stuff on the wall but after seeing the real deal...no one would ever want it again.
Ruining future programs for supplying bogus netting is the point here. From now on there are plenty of divers who know the difference is possible.
The netting isn't everything...but not having it is proof of an inability to handle the basic job; getting the divers off the juice.
In more netting shipments, we hope to supply more of the right stuff to other places backsliding for lack of genuine alternatives to poison.
Les people will do better now. Thats a wonderful thing.
Sincerely, Steve
