14 Days Off-Grid in Northern Vanuatu (Giant Tuna & Turtle Rodeo)

Never jumped on a turtle before but I guess today's the day. Back in the water soon mate. Just gearing up to jump in the water there's a FAD here which stands for fish aggregation device or fish attraction device and we've got the drone up got an eagle eye view and it looks like there's a fair bit of bait around a couple of sharks and rainbow runners so we're gonna jump in the water now have a bit of a drift and see what else is lying on it that could be coming home for dinner. What is it? Rainbow runner. So there's a thousand meters of rope here barnacles all over it and it's in 700 meters of water with a big float at the end it's made it through a couple of cyclones and the idea is that it creates an environment unto its own so barnacles little bits of seagrass and whatnot grow over it small bait fish move in and then bigger and bigger fish. Brett's throwing a jig down he's been nailed by a big rainbow runner on like what you'd normally catch like whiting on. Is he still hooked or you dropped him? Should we jump in and shoot it? Yeah yeah yeah. We thought we'd try one of these seamounts it comes out of a couple of k's deep up to 30 meters so we're gonna jump in the blue hopefully the current's doing the right thing find a bit of bait fingers crossed we can get a fish to take home for dinner. How are you feeling for the blue water miss? We jumped in on a FAD this morning and that was pretty beautiful and we didn't see any big fish so hopefully today I'm a bit excited to see some big fish a little nervous. All right see you in there mate. I'll never get sick of jumping into this clear water. Looks good there's bait sitting on this side. We're using a few different techniques to get the fish in such as flashing and burling to ideally raise dog tooth tuna which is one of the most sought after fish spearfishing from the depths they're not easy to shoot they generally hang really deep they fight extremely hard and they share the same environment as sharks which can be extremely challenging so it's important never to pull the trigger unless you're sure that you got a really good shot up it it's a good shot up it up it hard because even then there's still no guarantees that you're going to land a fish. Sorry mate I owe you a shark. Roger. I really wanted to eat that jobby. The sharks are pretty hot and heavy a couple of oceanic white tips different reef sharks a couple of whalers so like good variety of sharks and we're going to give it another crack see if we can land something but yeah there's a couple of really nice dogs sitting down low probably 30 meters but didn't come up to play the game. Doggy at the bottom of the burly. Mate what a fish. Oh you did so well man. Oh mate that was so so incredible to watch. How big a fish you reckon it is? Oh mate it'll be pushing the 20 kilo I reckon as called it doggy doggy I took the breath dived on down and the shot presented itself damn spined it dove down collected it sharks didn't know what was up. You weren't letting it go. No mate no. You had it wrapped around your chest. Mate we were super glued together on the way up. Pretty beautiful. That was a streamlined operation. Yeah nah I love it when a plan comes together. That's what we came out here for you know it's a good fish when you're struggling to pull it in the boat yeah man for you to swim down and just put this straight to sleep and then give it the big bear hug and then swim back up to the surface all in the same breath pretty bloody impressive. I wasn't letting go mate. It's okay look at the teeth big teeth. Yeah John. It's heavy. It's heavy aye. One two three good stuff John well done brother. Also if you're in the market for a set of knives these are our back to basics knives filleting all purpose I've used these for close to two years now and I've absolutely thrashed them they're handmade here in Australia if you're looking for a set the last of your lifetime check out the website b2badventures.com.au you can get yourself a set. One of the brilliant things about the pacific island cooking is that it's maximized for nothing going to waste so we're obviously taking these huge fillets off the side of the doggy but the head's going to get used the frame's going to get used and any bone or skin that doesn't get used is going to get fed to the animals out the back there's cattle there's pigs there's ducks there's chickens there's guinea pigs there's all sorts of stuff so it's reassuring to know that when you take the life of such a spectacular fish like this it's going to get maximized and respected through and through so really looking forward to a few different ways of eating this dog tooth tuna we'll do some raw see behind me I've got some bush lions and some chilies from the the orchard out the back and we'll have a feed of this fresh fish which is probably an hour old there's a dozen people that live here on this island so gonna get cleaned up pretty quick I reckon have a go at how much meat is off just one side I'm gonna take a chunk of this off right now but generally for sashimi I like to use the flesh that's up near the head because the tail is the working area of the body it's going to be a little bit a little bit tougher but up here near the head should be very tender that's so so tasty there's the frame which can be used for soup or just like done on a grill over the heat still a lot of meat there hey Eddie get into it we just chopped the doggy fill it up really fine what's in the sauce Japanese mayo wasabi sesame oil taking a break from spearing fish and we've come into this village where there's two families that live there's less than a dozen people and they've got a turtle research station where they tag and collect information and give awareness to anyone that comes through about green turtles and the hawksbill turtle so we're going to go up they've asked us you know if we'd like to come in this afternoon and go have a chat to them and see what they're doing here and let's go meet them hello nice to meet you Nikki we've been welcomed by Alphonse and his family definitely more than we were expecting but they've got a welcome center here which is a hut that they've built out of just what's around their village here it's incredibly humbling and he's going to give us a bit of a yarn about the turtles and what they do here we sat down for 10 or 15 minutes and had a bit of a yarn with Alphonse and seeing you know the work they're doing here they've been open since 2014 and he's got a really good understanding of the turtles that they have here and you know have tagged a hell of a lot in the time that they've been been open so he's asked if we'd like to go out this afternoon and do a bit of a turtle rodeo that's definitely not what we anticipated but in the name of research we're going to go out and jump on a couple of turtles tag them measure them get that data then that's going to be sent off to the main research station you know in Fiji or Samoa or Bougainville or back in mainland Australia if a turtle comes up and has a tag in it in years to come they're going to be able to get that and see where it was originally tagged and how big it was excited unexpected let's do it so we're jumping in his banana boat now going out the front of the fringing reef where he lives and we're going to see if we can find a couple of the tag fingers crossed we've spotted one this one just over here about 15 meters in front of the boat oh there they're so quick and Danielle just launched straight off the front of this banana boat straight onto the back of this solid green turtle on its back they got the tag and got it going but apparently now it's my turn to to find one and tag one so never jumped on a turtle before but i guess today's the day yep there's one here there's one right in front of us all right so the idea is you you jump on them you're all right mate you put your hand up behind their head avoiding the mouth and then one behind the bottom of the shell and then flip them upside down this one's been up in the shallows it looks like for the last hide we're not too far from the beach fortunately and they got the tagging gear so we're going to take this green turtle up onto the beach tag it measure it up quickly and then get it back in the water for a release let's do it Hal Fons is grabbing the the tagging gear we'll measure it up quickly tag it and get it back in the drink back in the ocean just a light massage just massage 57 tag number is ri14 088 yeah sorry mate this is what's getting put in the front fin which is essentially like getting an ear piercing so uncomfortable for a moment but definitely no harm long term be back in the water soon mate okay set yes all right well done we're all taking turns at having a bit of turtle research rodeo Brett's just got this nice green turtle just going to get the measurements from the back to the top that's 56 centimeters and then the width as well of the shell 50 centimeters complete yeah all right this one's going back in the water all right ready for release gone it was a hell of a lot of fun and something i wouldn't have really done unless you're with you know people who have a fair dinkum research station so yeah appreciate it alphonse if you do get to see this thank you to you and your family for the hospitality and the experience we're going to anchor their boat up come back in hours head back to camp yeah see you i've gone out with traditional owners of land and reefs before actually hunting turtles where they you know it's the major protein source for their culture but here in vanuatu this section of the pacific all turtles are protected and since 2014 alphonse and his family have tagged hundreds and hundreds of turtles so great work alphonse if you do see this good to meet you mate so last night we went spearing straight off here at 8 p.m at night and got close to a dozen crays crabs reef crabs but we haven't cooked them up yet we're going to do that right now there's a fair bit of hunger in the camp we're going to do a big family village style cook up on the coals for sunset just stick around it's going to be good this time around i want to share with you exactly where i am it's quakea island in northern vanuatu and i'm sharing this because it's an experience that you can go on yourself you can book and it's an experience like no other if what you've seen in this video and other videos similar to this that we've done in the south pacific it interests you culture catching your own food waterfalls reef surfing all the good stuff in the tropics put you over to the man who uh who's helped create this place to let you know how to find it bretto bretto how do people find quakea island uh yeah fly to the south pacific and uh get to port vila and fly up to the northern islands and here we are quakea island you can find me on instagram at quakea.island or got the website there as well quakeaisland.com and my whatsapp message uh phone numbers there as well if you can shoot me a dm and we can make sure a trip happens for you see you there brother sounds good how was your overall feeling about today it was fantastic all right so we got the mud spiny lobster and coral spiny lobster they're the two different types i've only ever eaten this one before never tried this never tried a reef crab it's an easy way to go about it isn't it as per usual i'm not gonna mess up a near perfect recipe just chop it straight down the middle add a bit of zhuzh a bit of island zhuzh and we're gonna put it onto the coals have a big feast with everyone cheers to a great day fellas cheers cheers cheers fire's been raging for about half an hour made a really nice coal base so i'm just putting a stick in spreading the coals out nice and evenly just to disperse the heat and then we're going back to basic style tonight cray shell down on the coals no mucking around 15-20 minutes and dinner will be up and we got coconuts we got cray and we got some lime and oranges i reckon if i was going to die tomorrow this would honestly be my last meal get into it boys get in there john in there john hey quick there'll be none left hey not that one