Hello beautiful people, and welcome back on the route once more! 🙂

Today, on our never-ending journey through the curiosities of this planet, we will dive into lakes and seas into discovering the strangest human traditions about fishing!

And no…we are not referring to the Sunday-afternoon, sit-on-a-dock kind of fishing! xD

In the world of today, fishing has mostly become a form of recreation, something almost everybody can easily try wherever they feel like it.

After all, charter boats are available to rent in pretty much every coastal destination around the world (here’s how fishing charters work, in case you’ve never booked one) and they make it super easy even for casual fishermen to access the waters and get in touch with the marine world!

Said that, today we will move away from convenient fishing, and we will delve into the many different ways people, across extremely different cultures, continents and centuries, have worked out how to get food from the water in front of them.

We will see trained birds, kites used as fishing line, and even shark-burying rituals ;D

Buckle up, as always get ready to be surprised, and let’s dive right in: here are 7 of the most curious fishing traditions from around the world! 🙂

1. In Japan, Fishermen Still Use

Trained Cormorants to Catch Fish

On the Nagara River in Gifu (careful, it’s not “Niagara” xD), fishing is a process that still looks almost exactly like it did over 1,300 years ago when it was first recorded.

Here, mostly old fishermen called “usho”, dressed in grass skirts and cone-shaped hats, work from wooden boats lit by open flame torches.

Each of those fishermen, surprisingly holds the reins of a dozen cormorants at once.

“Wait what??!”. Exactly: they use domesticated cormorants!

These smart birds naturally dive to catch the local “ayu” (a small sweetfish), and eat it in a single bite.

So, how exactly are they using them for fishing you might ask.

Well… it sounds a bit gross and evil, but…

The loose cord tied around the base of the cormorants’ throat let these animals swallow small fish, but it stops them from swallowing the big ones.

Once the cormorants catch big-enough fish, the ushos simply pull the bird back in and the birds cough up the catch.

As travelers, it is possible to experience this ancient tradition by watching from nearby boats.

Once there, you will realize that the tradition runs deeper than a show: the Nagara River cormorant fishermen work under the Imperial Household Agency, with the official title of “Goryo Ukai” (roughly translated into”Imperial Cormorant Fishermen”).

Even more curious?

There are only six of them, as their job is an hereditary position passed down through specific families since the Imperial Household Ministry formally appointed them back in 1890!

Part of their daily catch is still sent to the Emperor himself (in Tokyo!). 

Tip: the fishing season is heavily regulated and runs every year from May 11th to October 15th, so if you plan to get a look, plan your visit accordingly 😉

2. In Sri Lanka, Fishermen Fish

While Sitting on Stilts for Hours

Off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, near the towns of Galle and Koggala, you can still spot today people sitting on narrow crossbars mounted on poles driven straight into the local reef.

If it wasn’t for them having rod in their hand, you could come to guess that it’s some weird survival reality show or an endurance competition xD

Watching closely though… you realize that these people hold a basket wedged between their legs and are actually local fishermen!

Their fishing technique is called “stilt fishing”, and it’s actually much younger than it looks: it only started after World War II. 

In that occasion, food shortages and increasingly crowded fishing spots pushed fishermen to claim new ground, even if just a few metres offshore.

These poor fishermen, choose to get perched above the water instead of wading through it (to stay out of the fish’s sightline) and selected few spots too shallow for boats to cross.

Today, people to not rely anymore on stilt fishing for survival, and the tradition survives mostly for photographs.

Tourism made posing for a small fee more reliable (and remunerative!) than the actual catch, so most of the men you’ll see on the poles now are performing the tradition rather than living off it ;D

As numbers go, fewer than a hundred families still keep it alive at all 🙂

Quick Tip: We wrote a whole article on this incredible island a while back, from a train older than some countries to a national obsession you wouldn’t expect, here you can find our post – 10 Curious Fun Facts about the “Glorious Island” of Sri Lanka 🙂

3. In the Pacific Islands, Fishermen

Catch Fish Using Kites and Spiderweb Line

Did you know that across parts of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati (all Pacific island-nations) some fishing communities have long used kites for fishing? 

How?

Woven from banana or pandanus leaves, with a line ending in a tangle of sticky golden orb-spider web instead of a hook, the kite lets fishermen skim a lure across the water far from the boat, quiet enough not to scare the fish the way an engine or a paddle would.

The theory seems complex, but the actuation is actually easier than it sounds!

Most fishermen use it to catch local garfish and needlefish.

As history goes, some of the earliest written records of this fishing technique date back to the late 1500s, when European explorers sailing through the region described local fishermen doing exactly this from dugout canoes.

Regular fishing line has replaced it in most places by now, but kite fishing is still practiced in a handful of remote island communities today, essentially unchanged since those first written accounts over 400 years ago! 😀

4. In Nigeria, during the Argungu Festival,

Thousands of People Fish Together

Using Only Hand Nets and Gourds

Once a year, in the Kebbi State (a region sitting in the North-West part of Nigeria), tens of thousands of people wade into the Matan-Fada river at the same time for the Argungu Fishing Festival, and for about 45 minutes…. it is pure and organised… CHAOS! 🤣🤣🤣

No rods, no hooks, no nets even. The people here just fish using hand nets and large empty gourds as floats to and stay buoyant while chasing fish twice their size.

This festival in facts, dates back to 1934, when it was first held as a symbolic celebrative event to mark a peace agreement after the Sultan of Sokoto paid a historic visit to Argungu following years of hostility between the Sokoto Caliphate and the Kingdom of Kebbi.

From there, it grew into one of Nigeria’s biggest cultural events, now drawing over 50,000 participants, some from as far as Niger, Chad and Togo, alongside canoe races, wrestling and a horseback parade.

The biggest catch of the day, sometimes a Nile perch weighing well over 50 kilos, pulled out by hand, usually takes home a cash prize too!

I’ll be honest, the idea of fifty thousand people diving into the same stretch of river after the same fish sounds like my personal nightmare, but there’s something wonderful about an entire festival built around peace and food simply for the sake of it ;D

5. In Indonesia, Whalers Still Hunt

With Wooden Boats and Hand-Thrown Harpoons

This is incredible as it sounds!

In Lamalera, a small village on Lembata Island in eastern Indonesia, whaling (catching whales!) is not only still legal, but it looks straight out of Holliwood movies!

Here, in this quiet corner of the world, fishermen navigate the ocean waters on wooden boats called “peledang”, and still hand-throw harpoons,

Some harpooner even leaps onto the whale itself to drive it in, an act of courage unthinkable for most modern men!

On this boats, the harpooner hold a specific title, called “lamafa”, and it is one of the most respected roles in the village.

Usually, he stands at the very front of the boat, with the harpoon (called in a very menacing way “tempuling” xD) in hand, while a crew of anywhere from 7 to 14 rowers and helmsmen gets him close enough to strike.

The peledang itself, carved from angsana wood and around 7 metres long, is normally built without a single metal nail: every plank is joined with wooden pegs alone, a construction method passed down the same way the harpooning is!

The hunting season, locally called “Lefa”, runs roughly from May to October and mostly targets sperm whales.

The harpoon hunting is recognised by the International Whaling Commission as aboriginal subsistence whaling, meaning it’s allowed specifically because the scale is extremely small and the catch is never sold: the meat, blubber and oil can only be traded for rice, corn and vegetables, the same barter economy the village has run for generations 🙂

(For what it’s worth, this exemption sits in an odd legal grey zone, since Indonesian national law technically protects whales and dolphins too… and conservation groups keep a close eye on the practice.)

Quick Tip: If Lamalera has you dreaming of far-flung Indonesia, we also wrote about a completely different side of the country: Top 5 Yacht Experiences in Raja Ampat’s Archipelago 🙂

6. In Iceland, Fishermen Bury Shark Meat

and Let It Ferment for Months before eating it!

“Hákarl” might be the strangest entry on this whole list: fermented “Greenland shark”, and yes, it’s meant to smell the way it smells.

Greenland shark meat is actually very toxic when fresh, loaded with urea and trimethylamine oxide, compounds that can genuinely make you sick.

So centuries ago, Icelanders worked out a curing method to make it safe, back when a bad batch of food could actually kill you!

How it works?

The shark is gutted, and then buried in a gravel pit for six to twelve weeks to ferment, with stones piled on top to press the toxic fluids out.

After that, it’s cut into strips and hung to dry in wooden sheds for another four to five months. What comes out the other end is edible, but famously ammonia-heavy, strong enough that chef Gordon Ramsay once called it “one of the worst things he’d ever eaten on camera” XDXD

The Hakarl, is traditionally served in small cubes during Þorrablót (read it as you see fit ahah), Iceland’s midwinter festival, usually chased with a shot of Brennivín, a schnapps nicknamed, fittingly, “Black Death.”

Quick Tip: If you’re ever in Reykjavík and want to try it without committing to a full plate, most fish markets sell single toothpick-sized portions, exactly enough to say you did it 😄

7. In Brazil, Wild Dolphins Help Fishermen

Herd Fish Into Their Nets

Did you know that in Laguna, a small town in southern Brazil, wild bottlenose dolphins have been helping local fishermen catch mullet for over 140 years?

And fun part, nobody trained them to do it!

Here, the big dolphins herd schools of fish toward the shore, then signal the fishermen with a specific dive or a slap of the tail exactly when to throw their nets.

Miss the signal and the net comes back empty.

Read it right, and you can pull in fish by the dozen!

A team led by marine biologist Mauricio Cantor (Oregon State University, working with Brazilian researchers) spent over ten years studying the partnership between local fishermen and dolphins, using everything from drones to GPS wristbands, and published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their conclusion? It works because it benefits both sides!

The dolphins pick off fish that scatter in the panic of the nets going in, and 86% of all mullets caught during the study came from these perfectly timed “synchronous” moments with the dolphins 🙂

Even stranger, the same families of fishermen have worked with the same lines of dolphins for generations, and scientists believe the behaviour is passed down among the dolphins too, mother to calf, the same way the fishing spots get passed down father to son ;D

Conclusions 🙂

And here we are at the end 🙂

What stuck with me putting this list together is how differently “catching a fish” can look depending on where you’re standing: a trained bird in Japan, a whole festival built around it in Nigeria, wild dolphins doing half the work in Brazil…

Different water, different rules, but everyone on this list found their own clever, sometimes bizarre, way to answer the same question:

how do you get something to eat out of the sea, the lake, the river in front of you?

That’s the real lesson of all this, at least for me: necessity really does make people creative, even with something as old as fishing! 🙂

Before you go, I’d love to ask you:

• Which of these 7 traditions surprised you the most?
• Have you ever tried fishing somewhere unusual while traveling?
• Is there a fishing tradition from your own country I should’ve included?

Let us know in the comments below! 😀

And here are a few other articles you might enjoy next:

• 10 Curious Fun Facts about the “Glorious Island” of Sri Lanka
• 9 Ancient Ways Humans Tried to Read the Future (and Why We Still Do It)
• 7 Surprising Curiosities About Athens (Beyond the Acropolis)

Thank you for reading, and see you in the next article! 🙂