The grass is bright and the boat is full of cormorants.
Cormorants fold their wings and want to enter the water, just waiting for the sound of fishermen.
The bow was littered with the sound of fish, and it was silent and sparkling.
A male met a big fish and swallowed most of it.
The poem "Catch Fish" by Wu Jiaji, a poet in the late Ming Dynasty, vividly describes the process of osprey fishing. This was the case in the Ming Dynasty, and it is still the case now. The cormorants mentioned in ancient poems are commonly known as osprey. According to historical records, fishermen have been raising fish and catching eagles for more than 2000 years.
Nowadays, there are still some mysterious falconers in Baiyangdian. They domesticate some ordinary cormorants through the secret recipe of their ancestors, and they are as vigorous as eagles, and earn their living by fishing. Ma Laojiu, Zhang Laoyu and Zhang Xihua, who are close to ancient times, are all eagle-raising families since the Ming Dynasty. At present, the number of osprey in Baiyangdian Lake is less than 50, including Laojiu 16 in Li Guang Village, Laoyu Zhang 19 in Guangdian Village and Xihua Zhang 10 in Quantou West Street. At present, they are cooperating with relevant departments to declare this traditional secret skill of keeping and training eagles as intangible cultural heritage. People nearby have some mythical legends about the osprey, such as "the osprey once saved people's lives" and "three osprey can feed a family". According to reports, the osprey is a natural enemy of fish. As long as the fish in the water see the shadow of the osprey, they dare not swim. Baiyangdian osprey does have an extraordinary mysterious power. At that time, people once saw several osprey working together to catch a big fish weighing more than 70 kilograms alive.
Ma Laojiu recalled that he began to learn the unique secrets of eagle hunting from his great-grandfather when he was 13 years old. The boat he used was called Eagle Paizi, which was customized. Paddling in the water is much faster and more expensive than ordinary small fishing boats. Some of his 16 osprey were domesticated by himself and some were bought from other places. Now each osprey is worth more than 2000 yuan. He has been fishing in Baiyangdian for more than fifty years. He said that there are fewer and fewer fish now, mainly because some people secretly electrocute fish and fish with "homeless nets", which has become extinct for fish and shrimp production; There is also the problem of environmental pollution. Some villages and towns directly discharge domestic garbage and sewage into Baiyangdian Lake. Osprey often catches some waste plastic products and domestic garbage floating in the water. Now I often can't catch fish, so I can only go to the scenic spot to perform for tourists in the tourist season to earn some hard money. He said that when he is old, he often feels powerless and wants to pass on the unique skills of eagle hunting to future generations, but his children are unwilling to engage in this cause. He is cultivating his grandson's interest and trying to train him as a successor.