On Tuesday, June 9, 2020, 02:14:51 p.m. CDT, Adolfo Mascarenhas <adca...@gmail.com> wrote: PS Mervyn: you know a lot about fishing ...In 1944 we used to walk for picnics near Salender Bridge, near Oyster Bay. My Pinto used to Fish ...there was a one variety called lady fish. I have not seen them at all for the last 30 or 40 years . ---------------------------------- Doc, The seaward side of Selandar Bridge was THE place to go catch lady fish or mudoshi. They were plentiful then and they taste real good when deep fried. I remember there being five to ten Goan families fishing there on the weekends, in the early 70s. The families had either VW Beatles or Ford Anglia's and in those days, everyone knew the licence plate numbers of their friends cars. As such, even before you got out of your car, you already knew which of your friends were there.
The mangrove swamp on the opposite side of the bridge was my ecolab. Our parents warned us that the area was known to have quicksand but some of us had to find out the hard way. The mangrove swamp also had 18 to 24 inches of muck. If you stepped into that with shoes, you were guaranteed to lose at least one. At low tide, we would swim/crawl to the mangrove trees and shake fish from the branches. The two to three inch mud skippers would only survive for about a month in the fresh water tank at home. Fishing was banned from the area after an aircraft crashed a few feet from the bridge. The newspapers claimed that the pilot was a Canadian who had expensive equipment and who was photographing the bridge - which was a vital artery into town. Then, as now, US spies usually carried Canadian travel documents. The beach and the area around the bridge are completely destroyed as fishing areas now. Dar had a population of less than a million in the 70s. The population is 6 million plus now. The creek that empties from Jangwani used to bring nutrients and mud, now it brings plastic bags and toxic effluents and the water under the bridge smells like a cesspool. I make a pilgrimage to the Kivokoni fish market every time I am in Dar. On my last two trips, I went several times but could not find any lady fish. However, the locals tell me you can still buy them there. On a different note, once upon a time you could go down to the Colvale tar, buy oysters, khubers or thisro, have them cleaned and then walk home. The fisher women then dumped the shells next to the ferry ramp. Well, the new bridge killed the ferry and tar. However, the bridge in Siolim did not kill the Siolim tar. You can still get your sea food cleant there and they still dump the shells near the ferry ramp. Mervyn
