Lobster Round Up

---

My friend Darrow has a boat that he uses daily to cross the Piphot River to reach the land where he manages a small flower growing business. He bales the water from it now as we get ready to go lobster fishing with a local fisherman who lives where Darrow docks the boat.

I watch the fisherman's eighteen year old son sharpen the metal tines of the "s'naw", which looks like a small pitchfork. It is attached to the other end of the long narrow wooden oar. He feels each tine with his finger. They must be razor sharp so as to easily pierce the crustaceans that he is about to hunt.

Darrow's excitement mounts as we prepare for launching on to the placid river. He himself has never hunted for lobsters, but he wants to try his hand at spearing a few. So he has also brought a big headlamp and a s'naw.

I am writing a short profile of a lobster fisherman for the visitor center here in Chi Phat. Darrow has volunteered to be my interpreter, so I can ask the fisherman lots of questions about the process.

As it turns out, the older fisherman is not in a sober condition and so will not fish tonight. We go instead with his second son, seventeen year old Sokhaa.

The sun has set by the time we get on the river in the small wooden boat. Sokhaa and Darrow use the slender oars to paddle us across the river to the shallow bank. We are both eager to spear the lobsters. But first Darrow translates my dozens of questions about the season for lobster fishing and techniques. Sokhaa says he does not mind all the questions.

Somehow Sokhaa has skewered two lobsters already and dropped them in the boat bottom at my feet. In the dusky light I see them flip and gasp. Their eyes that protrude on stalks glow red in the light of my headlamp. Sokhaa keeps paddling along the bank, scanning with his headlamp. He looks for their red eyes, then confidently flips his oar around and plunges the small pitchfork in the water. Sometimes he pulls out a lobster, sometimes not.

Darrow and I don't try to fish for them, as it is much more difficult than it looks. We're watching an expert at work.

After two and a half hours and going back and forth along the river banks, my rear end is getting sore from sitting on the small wooden seat. Poor Darrow has been sitting on the two inch edge of a board and is getting restless. Sokhaa calls it a night because, after all, it is a school night.

I step deep into river mud as I disembark. Darrow gets the eight lobsters, enough for a nice meal, from Sokhaa. I give him five dollars, probably more than twice what he would get at market, so Sokhaa graciously thanks me. I tell Sokhaa good luck with his career goal of becoming a policeman.

After nearly driving his motorcycle into the hind quarters of a water buffalo on the road because the headlight does not work, I hold my head lamp high on the road so Darrow can see. We make it safely back to Chi Phat, Darrow with a bag of lobsters and me with a sandal full of river mud.

Sokhaa's story follows:

Profile of a River Lobster Fisherman

Seventeen year old Sokhaa lives with his family on the banks of the Piphot River near Chi Phat. Like others in the area, to earn money he fishes for "river lobster"--a type of large prawn.
"When I was fifteen years old, I learned to catch river lobsters by watching my brother. Since then, I have gone out with my brother nearly every night to find them. My brother is one year older than I am and catches more lobsters. But someday I will catch more than he does.

The best month for lobster fishing is January, when I can get many large ones. Lobster fishing continues until the rainy season starts, about June. At that time we can catch many fish, so we do that instead until the rainy season grows less strong around the end of September. Then we fish for lobster again because there are fewer fish.

From my boat I look for lobsters along the river bank, where it is shallow enough for me to see them. Sometimes they're on the river bottom, and sometimes they're on rocks under water. Their eyes glow red from the light of my headlamp. I turn my oar around to use the spear attached to the other end. If I put the spear in the water too fast, they panic and run. But when I get one, I drop it from my spear into the bottom of the boat. Sometimes I stand up on the very end of the boat as I row because I can see farther with my headlamp.

I like to get the big ones--the "number one" size--because I can sell a kilo of them for 50,000 real. The "number two" lobsters are smaller, and are worth 20,000 real a kilo. The "number threes" are smaller still, and get only 15,000 real a kilo.

The morning after catching them, we sell them in the market in Chi Phat, and sometimes to individuals around the village. We also take them to Andoung Tuek, where more people have money to buy them.

Some nights I can catch one or two kilos of lobster, some nights I catch very few. Sometimes I spend most of the night fishing for them, going back and forth along the banks of the river.

On school nights I hunt for them until about 8:30 pm because I need to get enough sleep. I use the money I get from lobster fishing to pay for books and school supplies.

I like to fish for lobster, but I want to become a policeman."

---

Photos

Terry and Darrow anticipate the hunt
Darrow makes one last cell phone call