Cormorant Fishing

Immediately after school, seven great friends, Wendy, Ebi-san, Eriko, Justin, Karianne, Jeff and I, took off to Nagara River to watch the cormorant fishing. It is a traditional method of fishing in Japan where the handler uses 10 or so leashed birds to fish in the water.
The trip started just before nightfall. We all got on a small, flat bottomed boat and were polled out into the river. Included was a “picnic” bento box – probably the most elegant picnic you’ll ever see! We stopped on the side, waiting for night to fall. The head fisherman came out to talk about how the birds are trained and cared for, how they were tied and handled during fishing. The men spend much of their time caring for the birds, who are only leashed while they are actually fishing.
The men punted out into the river and the basket was lit. The fir and sounds made stirs up the fish, giving the cormorants a chance to locate the quickly moving fish. The birds repeatedly dive for the small fish, swallowing them but not completely because of the way the leash is tied on their necks. After the fisherman has made a run down the river, he stops and allows the birds to “cough out” the fish they had caught. Most were quite small but some were fairly large.
Jeff has the best photos at: http://gallery.me.com/jeffgenest#100049