Legally....I could have logged every minute of that time....but it would not count towards any License or License qualification/rating or privilege.....but it would count towards total flying hours and hours on type in in what kind of flght conditions.
I disagree. You would have to be rated in the category, class and type as necessary to log any time. You could log it if undergoing training with a PIC in an approved PIC training program. I doubt the drug smugglers would have bothered with this.
Years ago I came across a fellow pilot who had about 1,000hrs of H369 tuna spotting time written in his logbook, but probably wouldn't have been able to tell you on which side you're supposed to sit when flying one...
It might be a little off-topic, but some of the tuna spotting industry sounds very dodgy if this report is anything to go by: