MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- For thousands of years animals have been assisting humans to plow fields, provide food and an efficient means of transportation. However, one animal in Japan has been helping people with another job - fishing.
The time-honored tradition of fishing with the aid of birds owes its success to the native cormorant, a black and white seabird slightly larger than a duck.
Although technology has pushed the cormorant from the mainstream of commercial fishing, the art of fishing with birds is still performed throughout Japan, including around the Kintai Bridge. However, cormorant fishing was once the main way to catch fish quickly and with erase.
During the 1600s, Japanese fishermen noticed that seabirds often caught fish too big to swallow, explained Tamotsu Iwamiya, head of the Nishiki River Cormorant Fishing Promotion Association Foundation. Those people found it easy to take the fish from the birds.
Because cormorant fishing was easier and quicker, it soon became a Japanese way of life, the 87-year-old fisherman explained.
Like many jobs, cormorant fishing is not possible without proper training for both birds and handlers.
The cormorants training begins when the birds are 2 years old and can last until they are 4 years old. They will then work for an additional eight years.
The bird handlers spend one-year learning how to manage their team of birds, Iwamiya said. As they train with them, they develop a bond that will carry on through their years together.
Throughout Japan, June 1 starts a new season when the birds and their handlers make their way to the rivers edges to carry out their special way of fishing. At the river they board long wooded boats. Each boat has a cormorant handler, with a team of seven or eight birds, and two men directing the boat on the river.
Once the men and birds are aboard, they paddle upstream out of sight of spectators where they wait for dark. Since cormorant fishing is only done at night, spectators wait in larger covered boats until show time.
A large iron basket on the bow of each fishing boat is filled with burning wood to attract the fish. The boats emerge from around the bend in the river with their orange flaming baskets drawing "oohs" from the crowd. For half an hour the birds dive into the black water emerging with the occasional fish.
To control the movements of the birds, each is bound by the neck with a small piece of rope leading back to the handler. The rope is tied loose enough for the birds to breathe, but tight enough so large fish cannot be swallowed.
The birds will go for any fish, but the "Ayu," a small native fish, is the most popular, explained Iwamiya. Because they will only go for fish if they are hungry, the birds are not fed before the show.
After the performance, the boats are pulled to shore and the cormorants stand in a row along the bow near the fire to dry off. The birds are allowed to sit for a while before their handlers remove their ropes, feed them, dry them off and put them in baskets to take home.
After the crowd leaves, the fires are extinguished and the boats and their crews are pushed off to the opposite shore, where they are tied up until the next nights show.
Although cormorants may be out of date compared to modern fishing technology, it remains a time-honored tradition.
The performance can be viewed from the banks of the Nishiki River near the Kintai Bridge everyday from 8-9 p.m., until Aug. 31. For a closer look, adults pay 3,500 yen and children pay 2,600 yen to ride on one of the covered boats from 6:30-9 p.m. Reservations are required and must be in Japanese. Group rates are also available.
For more information, or reservations, call the Nishiki River Cormorant Fishing Promotion Association Foundation at (0827)41-0470.