For a decade I have been documenting fishermen around the world as a personal project. As the ocean’s fish stocks continue to be depleted by over-fishing, I want to document those whose lives and cultures depend on fishing, and how they are dealing with the impact that it has on their local economies and way of life.
Minjerribah Fishermen is a story about a day in the life of the fishermen on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke) Island, state of Queensland, Australia.The fishermen are mostly members of the Gurenpul clan, who historically are fishermen and oysterers of the large sand island. The fishing season runs from mid-April until late August. In the past, fishermen would swim out into the waves, dragging nets out around schools of fish – a treacherous job as there are always bigger fish (such as sharks) hunting the smaller ones – as time and technology progressed, they eventually moved to rowboats and now, jet-boats in the effort to haul in the elusive catch.
Once the boats corral the fish in the nets, tractors move in a zig-zag pattern to haul in the live bounty. The usual catch is flathead, though mackerel and today’s catch, Taylor, are also harvested. The men have special permission from the government to fish the surf off of The Point, on the north-eastern tip of the island.