A week and a half ago, I took a day trip with some family members to a northern point of Taiwan, where we stopped at a harbour called Ba Dou Zi. What we first thought was an overcrowded dock due to the recent Typhoon that had passed through town, it turned out that many of the boats were waiting for the sun to set before venturing out to sea.

Many of these who were waiting for their night time sail had a string of Christmas lights on steroids. And although they do make a very pretty picture, these light bulbs (which must need a pretty powerful generator to keep going) do actually serve a function.

That function is to fool squid. Poor squid! Yes, surprisingly, these boats are exclusively for squid fisherman, with lights to lure squid near the surface of the water. I imagine something akin to the likes of something I’ve seen on the “deadliest catch”, although you wouldn’t think it from the pretty sunset pictures above…