Weird Fish (vegetarians and vegans look away).

Porcupine fish

Day 7, 25N 27W
Sir Robin, we do declare, is full of poo. This morning Impulse's underbelly was teaming with fish. I think they were trying to hide from the big bad pilot whale that was someway off. Things did not go too smoothly for them. To begin at the beginning: I was doing my early morning round of the boat - coiling lines and checking shackles. I reeled in the fishing line (to perform the customary 'unravel' as the wire trace tends to get in such a tangle with the trolling weight). And there, docile as an underwater lamb, is this strange purple creature. Certainly it is fish-like but I immediately have my suspicions. For us to have caught a fish, there must be a hitch... Catching a fish (however peculiar it looked) was such a momentous occasion that I felt certain Casper would want to be woken up. An aside here: sport fishing is a major tourist industry in Senegal and the Gambia and even there we caught nothing in 6 weeks despite trolling most of the time. Indeed, like a shot Casper was on deck just to verify I was not hallucinating and we had in fact caught something. The purple thing was placidly swimming along behind the boat, rather like a brainless dog on a lead, seemingly unphased by the big metal thing in its lip. I couldn't identify the 'fish' in Ian's Sealife book which confimed to me that we should treat it with caution and certainly not kill it to eat. No sooner had I relayed this opinion to Casper, who was now attempting to net the purple freak, than the strangest thing happened. The little fellow began to inflate. Yes inflate - eventually becoming the size of a basketball, but covered in spines. It looked just like the 1970's plastic ballballs my grandfather used to put on the Christmas tree. Except with eyes, a mouth and tail. It even sounded like a ball being blown up - squeeky rubber being stretched. Try as he might Casper could not remove the hook from the freakster's pout (I am more than useless at this time, wailing like a banshee). We had no choice but to let it go still sporting its piercing. Once returned to the sea it floated upside down (surely this was a design fault?). 'Oh dear have we killed it?' I asked. But just then the basketball's tail began to swish and the whole thing slowly shrank and - plop - it disappeared into a ripple of water.
Well we were both pleased the little thing (which it turns out is called a porcupine fish) had survived but my goodness when were we going to catch one we could stick on the barbeque?
Moments later: silver shapes glimmer beneath us. Dorado? Casper catches one pretty quickly, using a mackerelling kit we bought at the post office. Bargain! Indeed, the unmistakable blue fins and yellow scales of a dolphin fish. It's about 70 cm top to toe and we are about to cook it on the barbeque. The little zebra fish, which keeps the dorado company, is still under the boat and every now and then makes an appearence.