I’m driving among the gloomy hills to the sandy beach of the Barents Sea. This is not one of the tourist beaches, on the contrary, you should get an invitation to know where to go. I learned this from my grandfather, who was an avid fisherman all his life. He spent more than 40 years at sea and did not stop hunting for fish even on land.
And here I’m at my destination. I'm probably the only one who came here without the right equipment, rather I look like a black sheep with a camera in my hands. But since I’m here, today and at this time, it means I’m one of them. Therefore, those present look at me with curiosity, not hostility.
It's 3 o'clock in the morning, but it's like you're at dusk before sunset or dawn, the polar day has come, if it weren't for the clouds, we would have seen the sun. Therefore, I can easily see where the main meeting is taking place and go there.
All present are dressed in warm waterproof clothes, they have huge dip-nets on their shoulders, and dozens of multi-liter buckets are waiting for their hour on the shore. I think you guessed that these are fishermen.
And today is a special night for them, one of the few in the year when fishing turns into easy work, despite such a late hour and cold. Today they will catch capelin- which swims to spawn.
Millions of fish from the Arctic Ocean gather in a huge wave of living creatures, they swim to the shallows to continue their kind. Throughout the journey, they are being chased by natural enemies, seals, whales, and birds. And on the shore, where these small fish are thrown out in flight from predators, people with nets are already waiting.
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All that remains for fishermen to do is to wait for seals or whales to bring the fish closer to shore. And everything depends only on your observation and dexterity. Rather, in this case, fishermen are fighting among themselves to be the first to capture the basis of the shoal in their network.
Someone stays together, and someone decided to try their luck away from the crowd, hoping to quickly fill the buckets and go home to the family. I think some will not be upset even if they catch only a few tens of kilograms, for them it is more a tradition.
For others, this night is very important. This is an opportunity to earn money by reselling caught fish on the market and feed your family, as well as make supplies for hard times. Every northerner knows the taste of capelin since childhood, dozens of flavors in different preparations.
All these people gathered here today for different purposes, but for one reason - to take advantage of the gift of nature. Only a few people know about this particular bay. Most fishermen are engaged in fishing during the day on other shores. There are also a lot of capelin, but an inconvenient shore with rocks and a dangerous bottom. But no one is in a hurry to tell everyone about this bay.
Don't worry, it's not poaching. As you have noticed, no one uses nets, covering the entire shore with them. Everything is controlled by the nature service and rangers, they are also here today. Net fishing is prohibited, and each of these fishermen has paid for a license to catch fish by weight. Capelin is an important element of the ecosystem, there was no situation that its population became critically small, but this does not negate the fact of control and aversion to disruption of spawning. In fact, all these fishermen on the shore will not have any noticeable effect on the population. Thousands of fish would have washed ashore on their own.
Someday I will tell my son about this place and we will come here together. Maybe to fish, or maybe just to observe this phenomenon of nature with the participation of people. In any case, traditions should be passed on.