BRITAIN
16/05/2016
Fishermen Malcolm Rees and David Elias pose for a portrait with their Coracle fishing boats near the River Towy in Carmarthenshire, west Wales.
The Coracle fishing with nets by hand is a tradition that has been passed through families from generation to generation for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The Coracle is a shallow one person boat which is used for fishing sea trout and sea salmon in pairs. Coracle fishermen fish by night so as not to disturb fish. They wait until seven stars are in the sky, by which time it is deemed dark enough to fish.
There are only eight licences to fish on the River Towy and a handful of others in other Welsh rivers. With dwindling trout and salmon stocks the Environment Agency is thought to be planning to heavily restrict catches to the point that 2016 may the last fishing season in it's current traditional form. As it is times are hard and a pair of coracle fishermen are lucky to catch any fish on a run - when they do, they can expect to sell a trout for around £30.00.
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