Home is where the tuna is

Sekiguchi has done a lot of fishing. In Japan, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, he’s tracked and caught the elusive skipjack tuna all the way. Captain Sekiguchi, from Tokyo, has been catching tuna with Ika since 1978 and, he says, he may nev er go home again.

“The weather’s better here,” he says with a grin. “Clean air, clean water, good fishing and plenty of grog!” The

quiet fishmaster of Ika 5 “I’m 42, I think” has grown very fond of the

latter: “Before, in Japan, I had very bad teeth very painful. Now, I drink lots of grog and no pain!”

But Sekiguchi is also a man with a mission. “I like to teach,” he says.

“Here we have a lot of good people, who want to learn.

I’ll keep on passing

on the skills I have.”

A graduate of the Tokyo University of Fisheries, Sekiguchi began his career as an apprentice officer on a cargo vessel.

He later worked long-liners in PNG, did test shrimp trawling in Venezuela, and came to Ika as a captain under United Nations assistance in 1978. He returned briefly to Japan in 1987, but “I wanted to help Fiji, so I asked Ika if I could come back.”

Fishing, he says, is like the weather it comes and goes. He remembers dur ing the 1980-81 season catching 42 ton nes of skipjack in two hours. “There were fish everywhere piled on the deck, on the bridge, everywhere. Fiji has very good fishing grounds. Ika has a good future.” □

Sekiguchi: drinking plenty of grog.