Nilmini De Silva, Early Morning Fishing (September Theme: Travel)

I took this image on the beach, a five minute walk from where I grew up in Sri Lanka in 2015. It is the last time I visited. For generations, the fisherfolk have lived here in makeshift huts with little sanitation or protection from the vagaries of the weather. The beaches along this coast have always been a hive of activity in the early hours of the morning as the boats come in with the day's catch. I read sometime back that these fisher folk have been in a dire predicament for decades. The coastal belt is undergoing erosion damaging their houses as well reducing the area available for anchoring boats and for laying out the fish for auction each morning. The fisherfolk are at the mercy of rich merchants who own the fishing vessels and purchase their catch. The discharge of rubbish and untreated polluted waters have also impacted fish breeding. Many fisherman are leaving their trade to work in construction sites for better wages. Their problems were exacerbated after the tsunami which devastated this coast. Photography plays an important part in documenting history although I didn’t realise at the time that I might have been documenting a dying trade.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.