Fishing in Goa

It is hard not to notice that fishing is still a part of daily life in Goa.  The beaches are littered with fishing boats that give off a strong fishy smell as you walk past.  In the morning, if you get to the beach early enough, you can watch the fishing crews pull in their nets and gather up the catch of the day.

Brightly coloured fishing boats sit on the sand after a long morning of work.

A more traditional fishing boat made out of wood.

There are no fishing rods here, just metres of net that gets thrown into the sea.  The net settles to the sea floor and fish come in and swim over it.  When the time is right the team starts to fold the net over itself, trapping the fish inside, kind of like a giant envelope.  They will repeat this over and over until they have filled their baskets with enough fish to sell at the market or to a local restaurant.  It is hard, tiring work tugging on all that netting, so after a full morning of work you can catch most workers taking a nap under the shade of a palm tree or just sitting by their boats enjoying the cool sea breeze.

Workers pulling in their net and hoping for a big catch.