Last week, back in Xizhou, we were rowed out into Lake Erhai by a lovely young woman (who we later found out was in her 40s; this mis-guessing of age has happened a lot). We met another boat with two men in it and about a dozen cormorants perched (tied) at intervals along the edges. Cormorants are very large black birds. The handler unleashed each bird and tossed it into the air. After all of them had been freed, the men slapped their paddles on the water and the birds gathered around. The men began rowing toward the good fishing area, the cormorants swimming along beside them. When they stopped the boat, they gave a signal and the birds began swimming around looking for fish. Upon catching one, the cormorant would fly up to the boat where the handler was holding up a pole with a net on the end. The bird would land on the net and relinquish the fish to the handler. He was then rewarded with a few small pieces of fish. This process was repeated several times.
(In some places, the fishermen tie a string around the neck of the bird so that it can't swallow the fish, but the fish they were catching in Lake Erhai were far too big for the birds to swallow).
Up until just a few years ago, this was a viable industry and there were more than a thousand birds working the lake. Now, these kind of fishermen can't compete in the market, so what we saw was just a demonstration for tourists. More modern methods are being used, with the result that the fish populations are dropping at an alarming rate. Once again, I feel blessed to have seen something before it completely disappears.
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