The Tiniest Of Tiny!

   Early this morning, Mark and I headed to the pier to catch our lunch.  It has become almost a daily ritual for us to greet the day with a fishing pole in our hands.  We usually wind up with enough fish or crabs from the traps to have a tasty meal but it is purely the time together that makes it worthwhile.  

This morning, I checked the crab traps while he threw the net for bait.  As I plopped one of the traps onto the pier, I noticed something tiny and black in a droplet of water.  Whoa!!  That thing is tiny!  And wiggly!  I pondered what in the world the tiny critter could be.  It was less than a half inch in length and very dark (almost black).  It did have some very slight markings, miniscule fins and cute, beady eyes.  I decided that, since it was completely safe for a few moments out of the water, a photograph was necessary.  As soon as I got my picture, it was time to figure a way to get the critter back into the water without hurting it.  Grabbing it with my hand would most likely squish the tiny being so I needed something to slip under it.  I spied the old knife we keep on the pier...THAT would work!  Carefully...ever so carefully, I slipped the blade near the fish and it wiggled right onto it! In a matter of seconds, fishy was back safe again.  I know Mark probably thought I had gone bonkers spending so much time trying to rescue something you could barely see.  But I DID!

  Reviewing the photograph, confirmed my thoughts that this was a baby pufferfish!  Here, we have the Southern Pufferfish.  Depending on who is doing the talking, these may (or may not) be toxic.  While we were always taught never to eat one, we were always allowed to hold them and watch the critter puff up like a little balloon.  Then, we would carefully put them back in the water to watch the fish bob along like a cork until it deemed it was safe to deflate and swim away.  The wee one today was too small and too fragile to hold so it was carefully returned to the water where it could continue to grow.  Oh, the wonders of the Bayou!  It sure makes me glad I live here!

Oh, those Thumb Splitters!

   Every summer, we stockpile enough shrimp to last us until the next season.  Off season shrimp are usually not our good, ole Gulf shrimp and I made the mistake of buying those one time.  Never again.  Now, several hundred pounds of shrimp are bought, headed, peeled, washed, bagged and frozen.  These will make fine meals such as gumbo, poboys or shrimp burgers come this winter.  A shrimp poboy, for my non-bayou friends, is a delectable sandwich made with friend shrimp, lettuce, tomatoes and special sauce pile high on french bread and then slightly pressed to sort of mingle all those flavors.  We use only shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico for any and all of our dining pleasures.  Nothing else matches up to the flavor which is why the fully stocked freezers.  That preparing is what took up the morning here in the Little Bayou House.  Shrimp!  Beautiful Gulf shrimp!

  You know you are getting fresh shrimp when you head down to the docks to meet the boats as they are coming in to port.  The shrimp boats work all night and will head in to sell their catch.  If you are there early enough, you pretty much are guaranteed the "pick of the bunch" even though that means you do get a few "extras" with your haul.  At that time, the shrimpers have not had a chance to pick through the shrimp and discard any "undesirables" so you take what you get.  Most shrimpers are kind enough to "through in a couple extra pounds" to cover the little fish that might be dumped into the coolers.  It has never bothered me to sort them.  In fact, it is sort of interesting to see what is lurking out in those Gulf waters.

  This morning's haul had the usual little pufferfish, squid, croakers and tiny flounders among other oddities.  It also held several nice size mantis shrimp.  Mantis shrimp are the "prize fighters" of the small critters under the water.  These things can literally "pack a punch" which is why the shrimpers call them "thumb splitters".  The mantis shrimp have club like appendages that are held like fists and are used much the same except the punch is much stronger than any a human can give (compared to size).  The punch is so powerful that one punch can smash through a oyster shell and it is so fast that it creates cavitation bubbles.  When those bubbles burst it causes a shockwave which gives sort of a double punch which can kill or dismember prey even if the mantis shrimp misses its initial target.  The thumb splitter name comes from injuries shrimpers have received by grabbing a mantis shrimp.  A mantis shrimp can inflict a very painful injury in the form of a gash or even (in some places) a broken finger.  The Mantis Shrimp has the most powerful and fastest "punch" known to mankind!  (Think about that one the next time you are eating shrimp....then thank a shrimper for doing the hard work for you.)

  Thankfully, the critters in our shrimp were already either weakened or dead by the time we were messing with them.  Other than a few pokes from the shrimp spikes (one on the head and one on the tip of the tail), Son and I came through with flying colors.  The shrimp are all stowed away in the freezer and we await the next batch.  

Balloons of the Bayou

  Every once in a while, something comes along that just makes you scratch your head and ponder.  It was time to catch a few fish for the injured heron so my daughter and son-in-law headed to the pier with me.  The pickings were slim for the poor bird, though, as I had a terrible time catching anything.  Three pinfish, two small white trout, eight shrimp and one menhaden rounded out his meal for the evening. Although his meal was small, the bird seemed happy to have found a new friend in my daughter.  She patiently coaxed him to come nearer and nearer while she held the little fish.  Soon the bird decided that all was safe and it ate heartily.  After we left the pier, the bird flew off to my brother's house to get a few handouts from the grill.  This bird is becoming spoiled!

  While tossing the net for bird food, I caught a funny little fish.  It is this one that had me pondering all sorts of wild thoughts.  What normally is a small, nondescript fish turned into the conversation piece of the evening.  My haul included a pufferfish. This fish, when agitated, can inflate itself to several times its original size.  It puffs up like a balloon with either water or air depending on where it is.  This inflation is a defensive tactic which makes it non-palatable to predators.  When attacked, the fish simply inflates and a potential predator cannot swallow the fish.  Small spines on the body aid in this defense.  It is said that there is some toxicity in the pufferfish which also is a defense mechanism. If eaten, it can cause death.  But back to that inflation and a supposed predator.  Imagine the surprise when a predator tries to swallow its prey and that very prey suddenly grows three times its normal size.  Add to that size a bunch of prickles and this would definitely present a problem!  

  I played with the pufferfish for a few minutes to show Elizabeth and Robbie the uniqueness of the fish.  It was equally adept at puffing on the pier as in the water.  They got tickled at the fact that the fish could not stay upright in its puffed-up state.  It rolled around on the pier like some white ball. The heron kept eyeing the fish and easing in for the kill.  I knew this was not a good idea and kept shooing the bird away. After a few minutes of playing with the fish, I tossed the critter back into the water so it could go about its pufferfish business.  Contrary to what one would believe, the fish did not immediately deflate and swim to safety.  Instead, it floated about belly-up for a couple of minutes.  Ok, fish..you are free!  I gently nudged it with the end of a pole causing the fish to flip and deflate.  Away swam our entertainment!  Be free, Little Puffer, be free.  (Sorry, Buddy Heron, you do not get to eat pufferfish!  Oh, and by the way, Elizabeth named the soon-to-be-one-legged heron "Skipper".)

I forgot to mention that the fantastic photographs in this post were taken by my talented daughter, Elizabeth!  Thank you for allowing me to share them!