Beach Seining

On one of our evening walks it was getting pretty dark when these men came along with their net on poles and started dragging the net through the water from a little way off the beach, up on to the beach.  I tried a few photos and they are not tack sharp but I think this photo has a nice mood with the dark figures at work.  The process is called beach seining or drag netting.  The net usually features weights along the bottom edge (the lead line) to keep it resting on the floor and floats along the top edge to keep it upright. Two people stand in shallow water, each holding one of the end poles. They wade through the water together, dragging the net parallel to the shoreline or walking in a sweeping arc.  As they move, the net herds and traps small fish, shrimp, or crabs, which are then brought onto the beach or shore. Because seine nets are dragged through shallow coastal waters, estuaries, or lakes, they are designed to catch schooling fish, bottom-dwellers, and small baitfish.  In watching for just a short time, it didn't appear that they had caught any fish at all.  I do love the mood of this photograph.  I posted a larger image you may enjoy clicking on it to see it larger.