Benin, Possotomé region.
Today we were on Lac Ahémé, and we took a boat with a fisherman, who explained us three fishing techniques and told us some information about the lake.
The vodoun divinity lives on this lake, that is between 78 to 100 square kilometres. Water levels varies from one to ten meters. Near the shore, water is not so deep, so the fisherman moved the boat with a long stick.
Also some women were fishing near the shore, here a woman very focused about her activity:
The lake is 24 kilometres long and it has an average width of 3.6 kilometers.
There are 45 villages around, so many pression to the lake due to fishing activities.
Fishermen start fishing at about six o'clock in the morning, and also during the night to take shrimps. Fishing lasts between two and four hours.
In a day they can fish from 1 to 5 thousands of shrimps and small fishes.
After fishing, women buy the fishes and sell them at the market.
Fisherman showed us three fishing techniques.
First one is called 'la pêche aux crabes' (fishing crabes):
it consists of placing small baskets in the water that are picked up once a day. It is a technique that requires luck since you have to lift the small trap when a crab feeds on the bait, consisting of a small salted tilapia.
Second one is called 'la pêche à la ligne':
it is an old fishing technique. The baits are made from cassava flour kneaded with water to form a paste. Fishes (crabes, shrimps and other fishes) enter inside the stick and they are trapped.
Third one is called 'la pêche à l’épervier':
it consists of throwing a net which unfolds in the air before falling fully deployed in the water. Fisherman waits two or three minutes for the fish to come out of the mud and become imprisoned there before slowly raising the net. During the dive, the fisherman directs the net to stop the fish before it leaps into the water, catches it with his hands and throws it on the boat.
Pictures taken with Sony Alpha 7iii and Nikon D800.
October 2022.