Wang Damin is a fisherman. Although he is over 65, he is very fit and still enjoys working.
Damin uses cormorants to catch fish. Cormorants are large black birds. They are good at catching fish because they can swim well. They can dive* down and stay under the water for up to two minutes.
Damin usually starts in the late afternoon and gets the cormorants ready for work. First，he ties* a piece of grass around their necks to stop them from eating big fish. Then when Damin's boat reaches the right place in the river, he pushes them into the river. Damin uses several ways to make more fish come. During the day, he jumps up and down on his boat. After dark, he puts a light on a post at the front of the boat. The cormorants bring the fish back to the boat. Then Damin takes the fish and throw them into a big basket. In this way, Damin can catch fish without nets.
Cormorant fishing was once used in lots of places in South-East China, and there were many fishermen in the area. But today, few young people are interested in it. In 50 years, perhaps there will be no more cormorant fishermen in the world.
