Climate Change Threatens Japanese Bird-Fishing Tradition
Climate change has made the risk of flooding more severe in Japan and it's threatening an age-old tradition of using birds to catch fish in rivers.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 In the dead of night, fishes and seabirds work together under firelight to catch sweetfish.
00:07 They're on central Japan's Nagara River, doing a type of fishing called 'ukai', once common across the country.
00:15 The fire is used to surprise sleeping fish, and then the birds catch them as they swim away.
00:22 When the sun goes down, the fish are no longer visible.
00:28 So we light a fire and start fishing.
00:36 The fish are surprised and run away.
00:43 Training the birds is no easy feat.
00:46 The birds follow the fish's command to catch fish, and the leash around their neck stops them from swallowing the bigger fish.
00:54 The birds are then coaxed into releasing the fish for their masters.
00:58 It's a fishing method that's been passed down for generations.
01:02 Adachi is his family's 18th generation of ukai fishers,
01:06 and he's one of only 48 people left in Japan carrying on the 1300-year-old tradition.
01:13 But as the planet warms, the weather, and the rivers the fishers and their birds rely on, are no longer predictable.
01:21 Heavy rain has made the rivers more prone to flooding, and the waters stronger.
01:26 Adachi says he's seen the environment and the fish change.
01:30 In the past, we only had big rocks, but now we have sand and gravel.
01:36 And the fish have become smaller.
01:41 Rising temperatures have delayed their spawning period by a month, one reason behind the fish shortage.
01:47 And scientists say the decline in sweetfish is because the rivers no longer provide enough nutrients for the fish.
01:54 [Speaking Japanese]
02:11 To make up for lost income, fishers have turned the tradition into a tourist attraction.
02:16 Boats serving banquets give visitors a glimpse of the night-time operation.
02:20 But even this business depends on a reliable climate.
02:24 [Speaking Japanese]
02:40 As bird fishing and its tourist offshoots have become less reliable,
02:44 an organization to support economic development has set up platforms to try to continue the viewing experiences.
02:51 Fishers aren't yet sure how successful they'll be.
02:54 And as the climate crisis continues to impact the natural environment in unexpected ways,
03:00 they'll have to stay innovative to ensure their fishing tradition doesn't slip away.
03:06 Chris Ma and Laurel Stewart for Taiwan Plus.
03:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]