Li River Cormorant Fishing

Want to see how the local fisherman fishing with the comorants on the Li River in the evening? It is fun to see the cormorants swimming on the river, diving into the water and come up with the fish in its mouth. Why the cormorants just catch fish but can not eat them?

Cormorants are duck-like birds. The birds have large webbed-feet and black oily feathers, which make them very good at swimming and diving but not flying. The birds have long sharp and strong beaks that make them good at catching fish. And the mouths of the comorants are so big that they can swallow the fish as twice big as themselves. Comorants can dive into the water as deep as five metres and more than one minute.

Traditionally, the fishermen would go fishing in the evening with a lamp in front of the boat or bamboo raft. The lamp could both light the river for direction and attract the fish to come for catching.

And the comorants are normally are tied strings around the necks so that they can not eat the fish without the fishermen's permission.

In Yangshuo you can watch comorant fishing on Li River in the evening. It starts at eight o'clock and it lasts about one hour.