Here on Lake Lashihia in Yunan province in Southern China two brothers fished with eight cormorants to earn a living.

When I arrived they were out on the lake fishing and I had to find a boatman in the village who would take me out in one of his log canoes to met the fishermen.

Once out on the lake I negotiated a deal with the fishermen who then let me transfer into their canoe to accompany their continued fishing.

Here on the lake even though the water is crystal clear these fishermen complained of pollution of the water. The lake was quite large, about a mile and half wide and maybe a bit longer, but from where we are in the picture to the shore the water was thick in underwater weed.

This maybe due to run off of fertiliser as the fields that surround the lake were cultivated. The large area of weed growth allowed a sanctuary for the fish from the net fishermen but not the cormorants.

Our cormorants would dive off the boat and swim deep returning to the boat with fish or to my surprise large shell fish. These they would disgorge into the boat where the fish still alive would be transferred to a small tank of water.