I realized we were outside of Galle already when the scenery shifted to azure seas and unending white sands. I resisted telling my guide Sandrew to pull over on the side of the road so I could combat the strong waves battering the shore. I saw a couple of surfers high-five each other from afar, and after another kilometer, a Sri Lankan couple gazing at the beautiful formation of whitecaps caught my attention. The wind was incessant, attached with a yawning effect on me—on any other day, I would prefer to just doze off while listening to the thunderous rolling of the waves. But unfortunately, not this day.
Let's Go Stilt Fishing in Unawatuna
Since we were on a southern shindig out to cover more ground, I savored the sight of Unawatuna Beach for a few more minutes until Sandrew stopped the tuk-tuk by the side of the road. "Look at them," he told me. From a couple of hundred meters away, I saw figures of lean men sitting on makeshift crucifixes of sticks and twine, as if chilling and reading a book—only they weren't. Instead, they were intently focused on their dangled rods, waiting to attract the school of fishes whirl-pooling underneath the strong current into their waiting hooks. (They don't use bait—making the practice even more remarkable!)
An Ingenious Tradition
"Stilt fishing, it is called stilt fishing," Sandrew repeated himself. One of the men, who seemed to be on a half-hour fishing furlough, walked toward us, shook hands with Sandrew, and smiled at me. I wanted to ask him about the practice of stilt fishing, but he had difficulty conversing in English. However, it is obviously unique to Sri Lanka, as I have never seen it anywhere else before.
Later that day, back at Villa Templeberg, I did a bit of reading about this unusual practice and learned that it started during World War II when food shortages, along with overcrowded fishing ports, necessitated cunning new methods to source daily sustenance. Initially using shipwrecks and downed planes as their base for fishing, clever minds eventually invented the use of stilts erected in coral reefs where many fishes usually take refuge. Not long after, the stilts were constructed closer to the shore.
Patience Above the Tides
Since then, stilt fishing, which always happens at both dawn and dusk, has been handed down to the second generation of about five hundred fishing families living near the shorelines of the towns of Weligama, Unawatuna, Kathaluwa, and Ahangama. Studying their posture from afar, I noticed the importance of having loads of patience, while at the same time imagining that the stilts are not the most comfortable things to sit on for hours.
The unusual tradition of stilt fishing is extremely picturesque; however, I sensed just after clicking a few shots—while still being politely entertained by the man whose smile remained long after our initial introduction—that I felt I was probing too deeply into their practice, which happens to be a daily routine for them. For good or for ill, except for a brief time in 2004 when the tsunami destroyed most of the stilts, they have carried on. To give them an air of respect for what they do, I set my camera aside and just sat by the beach while watching a few men whose fortitude in exhibiting the utmost effort and patience—all just to preserve a unique tradition—is truly astonishing.
