GUILIN, CHINA 24°39’20.9”N 110°36’22.1”E
JULIA WIMMERLIN
“Like in any hunting or farming activity where men rely on animals either for their agility, strength, or both, you could see a bond between the fisherman and his birds.”
the first time i heard about cormorant fishing , we were living in Japan in 2010. The idea seemed so unusual and improbable that, as a newbie photographer, I decided to see it with my own eyes. It took me nearly 10 years to execute—in a different country, in a different setting, and with different photographic skills. Cormorant fishing is a traditional fishing technique not only in Japan and China but also in some Mediterranean countries like Greece and Macedonia. In 2019, living in Hong Kong, I took the opportunity to organize a trip to Guilin in the Southern part of China, where cormorant fishing was once a tradition and is now a main tourist attraction. Nowadays, fishing with these birds is nearly impossible for reasons including competition from modern fishing methods, industrial overfishing, freshwater pollution resulting in a drastic decrease of fish, and the absence of skilled cormorant fishermen and trained birds. To witness cormorant fishing, you need to have a personal demonstration with one of the few remaining traditional fishermen, which is what I did. The skills of training the cormorants are passed from generations to generations, but in modern China, nobody uses cormorants anymore, so the skills will be lost with the last remaining fishermen. Most fishermen who still know how to use the birds are in their 80s, and the youngest are in their 60s. With so very few of them remaining and the growing popularity of internal tourism, as well as increasing interest in traditions, these fishermen are becoming local celebrities in China, often appearing on national TV . I learned all of this after I returned from my trip, so at the time, I concentrated on absorbing the magical environment of the karst mountains and the foggy sunrise and shiny sunset on the Li River. We agreed to meet with the fisherman at around 4 a.m. on the shores of the Li River, allowing me to set up my equipment and watch the fisherman prepare. With nearly complete darkness at first, there were only a few boats fishing on the river with torchlights and fisherman arguing in the dark, their voices echoing all around by the mountains. It felt completely surreal. When the fisherman brought the birds, I realized how big these great cormorants were. Like in any hunting or farming activity where men rely on animals either for their agility, strength, or both, you could see a bond between the fisherman and his birds. With an average lifespan of 25 years, it looked like the birds and the fisherman knew each other’s habits very well.
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MOTHER VOLUME THREE
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