Ecuadorian Pacific: Fishermen on the Edge of the Tide

What’s the oldest occupation in the world? Though the commonest reply to that query is… properly, a distinct supply of livelihood, I’m not removed from the fact once I say it’s fishing. We will discover depictions of fishing on cave partitions, in addition to in the tombs of the historical Egyptians.

One place the place fishing stays the lifeblood of a neighborhood is the Ecuadorian village of Puerto López, situated a few hundred miles south of the equator on the Pacific Ocean.

Each morning, for a few years, the identical scene has repeated itself in Puerto López. After an evening of fishing, small boats return to the seashore with their catch. Fishermen, bent underneath the weight of bins of fish, rush to the seashore. Hungry Frigatebirds and Pelicans await these protein-laden hundreds.

The nice flocks of these feathered corsairs of the tropical oceans appear like one thing out of an Alfred Hitchcock novel.

With wingspans of greater than two meters, Frigatebirds are aerial acrobats who fearlessly steal fish proper from the bins on fishermen’s shoulders. Their silhouettes, with slender wings, resemble prehistoric monsters. In the meantime, the Pelicans favor to attend for what the fishermen drop into the water.

A bit farther from the shore, Blue-Footed Boobies dive headlong into the waves to catch their prey. From June to October, the scene is enhanced by Humpback Whales, for whom these waters are the place to present start to a brand new technology.

Nothing that the boats deliver to the seashore is wasted. No matter falls out of the fishermen’s arms is straight away returned to the cycle of life and demise.

Even commercially nugatory bycatch, similar to Moray eels, await the hungry stomachs of Black or Turkey Vultures. A lot of the fish is processed and offered proper on the seashore. Some, nonetheless, continues on, and who is aware of – it would find yourself on your desk.

Sadly, additionally on the native seashore you may see how the quantity of fish in the ocean is shrinking and the catch is getting thinner. For bigger fish similar to Swordfish, it’s essential to go far out into the open ocean.

Nonetheless, the vary of small fishing boats is kind of restricted and provides the fish an opportunity. If the complete world’s fishing trade have been like this, the oceans in all places would nonetheless be teeming with marine life. Sadly, the place small boats can’t go, massive fishing vessels enterprise – typically utilizing methods that shortly empty the sea.

For now, although, there’s sufficient sea life to help the age-old scenes that I’m displaying you under. The query is, for a way lengthy?