夜抓海膽 Catch the sea urchins in night

夜潛者在水下抓海膽

二月某晚，經過開元港時，瞧見黑色的海水下浮著陣陣亮光，有人正在夜潛。
一陣子後，一位只穿著薄潛水衣的人帶著一大袋海膽上岸。

他在水裡已經待了三小時，在水裡不冷，但是一上岸吹風就發寒。
不過他沒有馬上回家，頂著冷風，先在岸邊處理那些海膽。
首先將海膽丟入積海水的凹洞內，以棍子不停的攪動它們，用這方式將所有的海膽刺折斷。
然後再將一顆顆海膽摩擦水泥壁，讓表面的餘刺完全除去，他說這是老人教他的。
處理完那一大袋海膽，花了3、40分鐘，破掉的其中幾顆也入了我們的肚子。

他從過年時回到蘭嶼一直到現在，想待到飛魚季結束後或者老闆受不了時，再回去臺灣工作。
我問他為什麼？(因為抓飛魚沒有實質收入)他說：因為年輕時在臺灣待太久，現在想多花點時間待在蘭嶼，希望不久的將來也可以回到蘭嶼生活。這裡雖然沒什麼錢賺，但是生活過得很悠閒開心。

One night in February, passing through Kai-yuan harbor, I saw the glow beneath the dark sea; it’s someone who was night-diving.

After a while, a man in diving suit left the sea with a bag full of sea urchins.

He had been in the water for three hours. The water was not cold, but the wind ashore was chilly.

He didn’t head for home directly. Instead, he started to handle the sea urchins in the wind.

First, he put the sea urchins in a hole full of sea water and used a stick to swirl the water, in order to break the spines of the urchins. Then, he rubbed the urchins against the cement wall to get rid of all the remaining spines; the man said this method was taught by an elder.

It took about thirty to forty minutes to finish all the sea urchins, and few of the broken ones were swallowed into our stomach.

He had come back to Lanyu since Chinese New Year, and he wanted to stay here until the end of flying fish festival or until his boss couldn’t stand for him anymore. By then, he would go back to mainland Taiwan for work.

I asked why (he would stay here for catching flying fish without actual income); he said he had stayed in Taiwan for such a long time when he was young; he would like to spend more time in Lanyu and return back to here in the near future. Although the pay is not good, the life here is free and happy. 

除完刺的海膽