Goin' Fishin'

Have any of you read the story book, Ping, to your children or grandchildren?  Check it out of the library and read it to them.  It's a fun book about cormorant fishing.

Last Friday night, I was very excited to go see, in real life, what I had read to my children and grandchildren dozens of times.

Here's our group, right after viewing the fishing.  Sister Baird is in the center of the front three.
You can easily pick out the missionaries, Elder Ito and Elder Ellsworth.
In front of Elder Ellsworth is Megumi; her daughter is left of Sister Baird.  They are dear friends.
There are a couple of oldies with white hair and the rest of the group
is pretty well Baird Family, visiting from Utah.

Cormorant fishing is a traditional fishing method in which fishermen use trained cormorants to fish in rivers. Historically, cormorant fishing has taken place in Japan and China from around 960 AD. and recorded from other places throughout the world.

 Though cormorant fishing once was a successful industry, its primary use today is to serve the tourism industry.

The man with the bird has just had him empty his gullet and is putting him in a basket.
Fishing has ended for the night.

I think this little tourism thing is pretty lucrative.  Sister Baird insisted on paying for us to go, so we aren't sure how much it cost. (Thank you, Sister Baird!) But we are guessing it wasn't cheap because very little in Japan is.  There were 8 boats lined up at the shoreline of the river.  We walked on to the boat and, of course, removed our shoes.  Then we walked along a small aisle between the outer edge of the long, thin boat and a low table in the middle.  We kneeled, then sat with our legs under the table, facing the people across from us.  Each boat could handle 40 people, so in that one trip, there were about 320 people who went to watch the cormorants.  The boat had a roof above us, from which they hung lanterns (and from which we noticed several fairly healthy-looking black spiders playing like they were lanterns.


Our boat pushed off and was taken down the river about 400 yards to get into position to view the fishing.  A man standing on each end of the boat had a long pole, and they pushed us along in the shallow river.  

Soon, along came the fishing boats, also long and narrow.  There were four men in each boat, and there was a fire burning in a basket on a long pole in the front of each boat.  They use a fire to attract the fish and hit the sides of the boat to keep the birds active. The man in the front is fairly close to the fire basket, so he wears a fireproof hat and bamboo skirt.

Because cormorant fishing is a daily activity for nearly five months of the year, the fishing masters begin each day by selecting ten to twelve healthy cormorants for the evening’s activities. When the birds are selected and the boats are prepared, the six fishing masters draw ropes to determine the order in which they will fish.

When the cormorants catch the fish, they are brought back to the boat using ropes attached to their bodies. When they are back in the boat, the fishing masters slightly squeeze the birds' throat, and they open their mouth to let the fish, still alive, fall into a basket.  Each bird can hold up to six fish in its throat. The birds are prevented from swallowing the fish because of a ring tied around their necks. The cormorants, however, are still able to swallow smaller fish. Though the ropes are strong, the fishing masters are able to quickly break them if a bird’s rope gets caught beneath rocks, ensuring the bird will not drown.

This can sound like cruelty to animals, this tying a rope around the birds and putting a ring around their necks.  Someone told me that once the birds are caught to train and use for fishing, they are treated like household pets.  They are well-fed and live for about 15-20 years as they work for the boatmen.  That same cormorant would live about 5 years in the wild.

PS:  I keep forgetting to add beauty shop names.  Here are three more:  Brunt Cut, Love Buzz, and Jank Hair.