Chinese Fishing Nets
Cochin, a city in the southern state of Kerala, is home to an intriguing form of fishing. Called Cheena Valla or Chinese Fishing Nets because they are believed to have originated in China, each structure is composed of a large net suspended over the water and attached at one end to a stationery teakwood platform.
The nets are operated by a very clever system of weights and pulleys. The net is lowered into the water by one or two men walking on the wooden planks (above), with the planks gliding down like a seesaw.
The net is left in the water for a few minutes, then hauled up using a series of ropes with rocks attached to them. Each net requires 4-6 fishermen to pull it up.
That's me, making like a fisherman, and helping to bring in the haul!
The fishermen told me they do this as many as 200 times a day.
One person then goes out to the front and leans out over the net to bring up the catch...
...which is immediately sold in the adjoining fish stalls and cafes.
You can pick your fish from the net, and have it cooked to order on the spot.
For the resident kitty, a meal doesn't get any fresher!
A row of billowing nets lined up along the Arabian Sea makes for a very elegant sight, and is a major tourist attraction. Sadly, the nets may not be around for much longer. The primitive system can't compete with more efficient, modern fishing methods, and the increasingly polluted waters have been yielding fewer and fewer fish, making it difficult for fishermen to earn a living.
And that's probably the most healthy way to take fish from the water, no
pollution, yet they can't compete with "technology!" Maybe all technology
is not a good thing. Thanks for sharing this.
wow- what a great set of pictures and story- I sure enjoyed seeing this. So
sad it may not be around much longer.
Wow, Basia, this entry was déjà vu all over again! Memories of my childhood
came flashing back to me - not in China, but Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Our
family (Mom, Dad, Brother, and me) used to go Smelt fishing on the pier in
Lake Michigan. Dad had an apparatus similar to this: a long boom with a
square net danging from a rope over a pulley on the end. It was lowered
into the water and brought up, hopefully with a net full of Smelt. When the
Smelt were running the cries came down the pier from net to net as pounds
of fish were hauled up. Here's a couple links that explain it better than
I can. http://www.1kfriends.org/Publications/pdfs/Smelt_God.htm
Joanne: That's wild! I wonder where your dad learned it from - was
it something passed down from his family?
love the photographs.Reminds me of a PJ