Angela on Ocean Knowledge, Food and Stoke!
Blog written by Angela Wisco
2019 Catch & Cook Competitor and friend of Fin + Forage.
Coming of Age
There is something about the ocean that draws you in. Anyone that has a love for the water knows the feeling. You've had it since your first time at the beach. The sound of the waves, the smell and taste of the air, the water coming in and out and getting your feet wet.
I didn't grow up near the ocean exactly, but we used to make the 2.5 hour drive out to the Oregon coast every summer. I don't know if I can remember the exact location or scenery of my first memories of the ocean, but I can clearly remember the emotion I felt when the wet sand would fill in between my toes as the water came in over them. I don't know how old I was, but if I had to guess, maybe 3? To this day, I still feel that same emotion every time I step foot in the water.
Fast forward 30 something years, I've spent a good share of my life in the ocean. I was fortunate to be able to move to Hawaii for college, and there, I instantly fell in love with surfing. Now, I've been a surfer for almost half my life. With all that time in the water I used to see people spearfishing near where I'm surfing. I'd see people hauling their stringer full of fish up the beach. Friends and friends of friends would bring speared fish to barbecues on the weekends. Spearfishing has always been a deep, ongoing interest, but even with all the time I’ve spent in the ocean and all the fish I've eaten, I never ended up trying it out while I lived in Hawaii.
Community
I've lived in the Bay Area for 9 years now, still surfing every chance I get, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I finally started learning how to spearfish. I made some friends somewhere up north on the beach one day. I was eyeing their catch, lingcod and abalone, in awe as they were telling me about their dive. They took me out freediving for abalone (when it was still legal in Northern California), and I knew I was hooked. So I looked into taking a professional freediving class. All my surfing experience in the ocean has taught me that the force of the ocean is not something to be messed with and has made me a safety nerd; so I dove into the forums and anything I could find about the steps to take. After learning a surprising amount of proper safety techniques and getting freediver certified, through tips from my instructors I found the Monterey Bay Freediving and Spearfishing groups. And there I found some of the most down to earth, welcoming people I have ever met. Whenever I made the drive down from San Francisco, I never had a problem finding a dive buddy that was willing to show a newbie like me around. I was, and still am, completely blown away and humbled by their hospitality towards new divers. They don’t just give out the standard advice. At the core of these groups, they educate each other to promote safety and responsibility within the dive community, and one of the ways they do this is through the catch itself–seafood.
The Ocean and Food
Everyone that knows me well knows two of the biggest loves of my life are the ocean and food. I love to be in the water, and I love to eat. I especially love to eat fish. I learned how to freedive with the intention of learning how to spearfish, with the ultimate goal of eating fish. Around this time last year, I heard through the Monterey Spearfishing Group that a "Catch and Cook" competition would be held near the end of the year. It's exactly as it sounds: catch a fish and cook it. I am still a newbie at spearfishing and a newbie cook, but I was all in. My love for the ocean has inspired me to become more educated about sustainable fishing, to practice it, and encourage choosing sustainable seafood sources as much as I can. With so many of us finding this love for the water and spearfishing, we need to think about how to make it last for everyone to enjoy, and not just take. I am by no means an expert on seafood sustainability, but I don't think it gets any more sustainable than going into the water, choosing and catching your own seafood, and eating it right there on the beach. Ocean to mouth!
The setup for the comp was as follows: divers meet for a safety briefing in the early hours of the morning, you and your buddy go to any legal spot to spear your fish, come back to the beach site for cooking, and finish cooking your meal by a designated time to be judged by a panel of professional chefs. Elements of the judging not only included recipe originality, but cooking techniques, and overall presentation–using more parts of the fish (not just the fillets), was weighted extra on the judging scale.
The part I loved the most about this competition is that it focused both on the catch and what you do with it after. Spearfishing is not just about catching the fish. You're spearfishing to eat, otherwise you are merely just taking a life. The respect for that life starts the moment you decide to go into the ocean for the hunt. It's not just knowing the fishing regulations, but also understanding the reasons behind them. The more knowledge you have about how the ocean and its food populations are affected by our actions, the more responsibly you can choose which fish to shoot. Then, caring for your catch, you prepare it for a meal in the best way possible using your own creativity, and using as much of the fish as possible so that there is minimal waste. Whether the meal is simple or complex, it doesn’t matter. In the end, it just comes down to respect for the ocean and the fish.
I ended up spearing my first black rockfish that day. I was stoked. I've never been a cook, but I'm loving the learning process. Since this was my first ever cooking competition, and knowing my mom loves fish, I asked her what's her favorite fish dish–it's escabeche, which is (the Filipino version) pan fried fish with a sweet and sour kick to it. We were allowed to prepare sauces and ingredients ahead of time, so I decided to make an escabeche sauce beforehand with a bit of a California local style to it–a sweet and sour sauce with persimmons (CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE). My dive buddies and I got back to the beach and we had a blast preparing our catch on camp stoves on picnic tables, along with the rest of the participants. Everyone was so supportive of each other, lending all kinds of stuff, tasting concoctions, etc. I let someone borrow my multitool for the can opener and he ended up winning the competition. So I can definitely say I had a hand in him winning. The overall vibe didn't even feel like a competition, we were all just having fun, hanging out. Aside from the main event, there was also a raffle, and prizes for heaviest fish, most sea urchins removed, and most trash picked up (for the beach cleanup event that was also taking place). I didn’t end up winning any of the prizes, but that didn’t matter… I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in this inaugural event. I got to enjoy doing some of the things I love most, and at the same time, I got to be part of a group promoting this lifestyle in a responsible way.
Motivation
Those months leading up to the competition really motivated me to learn the local fishing regulations and fish identification, although I did not notice that drive at the time. It will always be an ongoing learning process, but looking back a year ago, I'm so much more confident in my knowledge and skills than I was back then. I thank the Catch and Cook comp for giving me that extra motivation. I keep hearing that many of the places I’ve spearfished used to be way more “fishy." That thought is always in my mind- what can I do to help the fish populations come back? Is ok for me to be doing this? How can I keep doing this, but do it responsibly? Spearfishing seems to get a bad reputation sometimes, because, well, look at us. When we’re suited up with all of our gear, we look like we’re about to go to battle. But if you think about it, we are up close and personal with each fish we shoot. So we have a choice when it comes time to pull the trigger (or release the polespear, in my case). I'm super picky about the fish I choose to shoot. One of my personal rules is I will not shoot a fish if I am not confident in of the ID and regulations (however I'll admit, I'm not always right 100% of the time). This is probably why I don't catch many fish... but I'm ok with that. It's not about how many or how big of a fish I catch, it's about continually educating myself and taking all the steps so that I am worthy of taking that fish's life to eat and enjoy.
As I get older and as my relationship with the water just keeps getting stronger, so does my desire to protect it. I get to know that emotion that I first had when I was 3 years old a little more and more as the years go by. I still can't describe it entirely. I don't need to. None of us need to. That feeling is so personal to each and every one of us that have it, whether it be for the water, or anything where we feel a strong connection. I owe my soul to the ocean for all the stoke and all the food it has given me. The ocean and all it holds is a gift that we are simply borrowing, and that is exactly why we need to protect what we love, not just for us, but so this gift lives on for all the future generations to come.