there's this big culture of fishing in key west and they really embrace it it's a
paradise for any fisherman or seafood lover at this most southern point of the
United States it is the me of two great bodies of water so the Gulf of Mexico
and the Atlantic so literally in one day you can go fishing for tuna and Marlin
hogfish one of the best eating fish I've ever had yellow jack mahi-mahi the
yellowtails lobsters black grouper wahoo qsl all of that to offer and this is
what is so fantastic about it my name is Valentine Thomas I'm a
professional spear fisherwoman and we're here in Key West to go fishing
you
I've been pretty shade for about eight years it was not exactly love at first
sight when I was 14 animals drowning us out of friends so I was petrified by the
ocean I brought my roommate Austin because you
never spear fish alone throughout this video are not only am i filming
Valentine but I'm also her safety you know it's just one of those things where
you're there to really watch each other's back something as simple as an
amberjack if you don't hit the perfect shot they're strong enough to drown you
I remember the first time that I actually went spitting and even though
for an outsider it looks very gloomy and very dark and very scary underwater it
looked absolutely beautiful
I told myself wow this is one of the coolest thing I've ever done in my life
finishing changed my perspective a lot of things at life change my perspective
and values is he's my protective and how I see food this is about connecting to
you food about passing it and it was possible way I do it because I want to
grab dinner and sustainable way and nothing else I had the chance to read
eye of the world and what I was able to notice is how overfish all of our oceans
are see West is one very good example of well regulated waters you have seasons
for different fish
if you're looking to try to evoke in Key West charterboat
row is definitely a place to start you can talk to all the captains and
handpick a person you want to go fishing for today
my name is Aaron young I'm a charter captain in Key West Florida about as far
south as you can go in the continental US I spear fish quite a bit actually I
do it commercially as well so a lot of people get a misconception Network these
heartless killers the reason we do it is because we're very selective of what we
take there's no bycatch there's no you know unnecessary kills we eat everything
that we shoot and that's one of the reasons I really respect her
I got a couple spots in mind we're gonna head out to the reef and kind of see
what the business so I can go from there probably do a couple drifts with Wahoo's
and maybe get on a couple of wrecks
today was definitely not an ideal day when he came to spiff fishing we got
probably the coldest day of the year the sea was kind of rough the water was very
murky so we decided to start with a little bit of line fishing the captain
has a secret recipes of fantastic Santa is mixing chum and sand with secret
ingredients and that makes the perfect bait to fish so he drops the ball very
tight and then it is just slowly disintegrates in the batter to catch the
fish
the cubes finishing is being as relaxed as possible the first thing you do when
you jump in is that you want to breed up there's a thing called a mammal
anti-reflux that everybody has so when you emerge your face in the water your
heartbeat is automatically going to slow down your blood are gonna start shifting
from the extremities to the vital organs so your body is getting ready for it
your oldest breath the calmer you are on the water the closest you can get to
fish and also the better you're gonna free that I loaded my gun and then I
took my first job the first thing I saw when I jump in was a gigantic bull shark
you know it's it's always a concern you know when you're chumming that the
sharks will come sharks are a big part of spearfishing especially in Florida
you're putting yourself in an ecosystem where you're not at the top of the food
chain so as long as you respect that and you give them their space then there's
nothing to worry about a couple drops later Valentine finds a school of yellow
Jack's so she shoots the yellow jack and then I pull the fish as fast as I could
all the way to do surgeries I put it on a boat before anything else having sent
the Sharks were kind of just getting too thick and we decided to move so we
headed out to one of the local wrecks we had a kingfish come by she made a
great shot on the fish and from there you know we Connor were able to just
decide that we had enough fish for the day that's a great day I actually really
enjoyed cleaning fish it's really part of the ritual and it's you know you
catch it you clean it and then you eat it I like to take my time when I do it
I'm actually pretty slow because I really want to make sure them I'm not
wasting any parts and it's the job is well done the more you use of it I think
it's just it just shows even more respect to your catch here we are at
Cafe Soleil in downtown Key West what we're bringing or catches from today so
they can cook it I've been serving between 50 and 75 different species of
fresh-caught fish out of these waters for 25 years these locally caught fish
are it's just not available to most people in most parts of the world so
these are you know when I when I get a nice fish like this in and I smell it
and I know that fish is just right out of the water
well I'm so glad you brought this to me let's go cook it I'm super excited cook
your own catch started because local fishermen local guides and people who
live here started bringing me their fish and it was really an incredible
compliment because these folks catch their own fish and they and they know
how to cook I would take a couple of these guys and then I'd like you to make
three little incisions like this okay rub a little olive oil on those so let's
put these on the grill boom a little marking for a little
flavor before we toss it in the oven we're gonna put a little bit more olive
oil I'm gonna take a couple of grilled limes put that in the cavity I've got
some fresh herb de Provence we make our own mixture and then we're just gonna
put this right in the oven so in ten minutes we're gonna check that and see
how it's doing let's grab the yellow jack I do want to say that you know one
of the main things when we do fresh catch is we ask people to fillet the
fish because it's really difficult for us when we're busy at 6 o'clock to
fillet your chip I think that looks beautiful for a really nice tahini see
how the grain of the fish is right here yes so what you're gonna do is either
cut straight or you cut like this if you cut across and it'll fall apart let's
try a little piece of this
I pay them it's pretty good well black in these I'll I thought you
do you push very simple people asking me what do you put a new fish lemon and oil
great there's a freshness of the fish is really the primordial thing and there's
nothing better than something that was caught today let's toss this on here
again and we're gonna give it just a little bit of butter and we really don't
want to overcook this right no we're doing it too talky so now we're gonna
slice that up these guys are ready
Table four service service it very good pick up Emma Hart yeah you got a job
this is one of my favorite destinations you can really feel the community when
when you come here and that's for me one of them my favorite thing about this
place