Jul

13

This is a very interesting short film about risking life and limb to bring a delicious gooseneck barnacle to market:

"The Life of a Percebeiro"

In the northwest corner of Spain, in the coastal region of Galicia, fishermen boat into fjord-like inlets called rias and rappel from slick rocks to collect gooseneck barnacles in crashing surf. They hang down in pairs and watch each other's backs as they scrape and claw the crustaceans from slick six-foot sections of barnacle-tiled rocks battered by frigid waves.

And this is another interesting article about them

"Galicia's Hard to Come By Barnacles"

Structuring their lives around every subtlety of this unpredictable climate and treacherous coast, fishermen must wait for the proper tide (it should be as low as possible to expose the percebes) and ideal sea conditions (relative calm), and watch for signs of strong undercurrents or of brewing storms. Any conditions that are less than ideal keep them idle at port, sometimes for days at a time.

I bet they are wonderful with a local white wine.

They have a short piece here showing how they made the film and it shows the fish market with the price of the barnacles—love how the fisherman (at 1:05) points to eye to tell the cameraman to watch. Quite fascinating.

Interesting use of camera on small, remote control helicopter too.
 


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