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This is me laying on the edge of an underwater cliff, in about 12 feet of water, and I'm lining up my spear gun on what is usually an extremely smart and elusive fish. But today it's not acting that smart and it's not being very elusive either! This is a different dive about three months ago where I'm chasing the exact same fish, it's called a Mu. On this dive, I'm 78 feet deep rather than12, and the total length of this dive is 2 minutes and 19 seconds. A deep, long dive like this is usually what’s required to catch a smart fish like a Mu, in a busy place like Bali, and although these two fish are exactly the same, one of them was obviously way more difficult to catch, and the reason for that is because Bali, Indonesia, where I currently live and do most of my spearfishing, has a Hard Rock Cafe!
You might think of Bali as a beautiful, tropical island paradise, full of culture, waterfalls, and wildlife. A perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of the western world. But this is not the case, at least not totally. There are culturally authentic parts of Bali but it is also one of the most popular tourist destinations in the entire world, and along with the booming tourist industry comes restaurants and huge amounts of people. And although Bali once was that quintessential jungle paradise, it’s now extremely populated and along with all those people comes a lot of pressure on the local fish population. Basically, there are fewer fish in Bali now, than there used to be, because there are more people, and the fish that do live here are smart enough to be very wary of humans.
The difference between this Mu I caught at 78 feet and this Mu I caught at 12 feet is that this one was caught on a different island, a true jungle paradise. This island has around 400 residents, a few thousand goats, and cows that wander along the beaches, zero paved roads, zero hard rock cafes, and lots of fish! Right here, these fish aren’t as familiar with humans and so they don't really understand that we’re a threat, at least not yet. Eventually, the fish wise up and realize that we're a danger to them and so they retreat to deeper water but as I mentioned, I'm used to hunting these things in deep, dark water back in Bali and so I just followed them down and continued the carnage. After we had caught enough for everyone's dinner, I kinda lost interest in spearing them because, to be honest, it’s not nearly as enjoyable when it’s so easy. As you can imagine, we enjoyed tons of sushi and grilled fish while staying on the island. Nothing in the entire world is quite as satisfying as catching your own food and cooking it over a bonfire on the beach.