How Spanish "sea peasants" get shellfish (18 photos)

People break into groups, mostly women, wander into waterproof boots on the muddy sand of the bay, making the most of low tide.





Fussing with rakes and buckets, they chat merrily and laugh. These are shellfish miners, or, as they call themselves, “marine peasant farmers".



Blushed from coastal winds and hard work, they wear colorful headscarves and casual home wear, creating the perfect landscape painted in oil, against the background of a striking blue sky and thin white clouds during the cool hours at dawn.

Collecting shellfish in the vast bays of the northwestern region Spain Galicia is a deeply rooted tradition handed down from generation to generation.







In times past, the women of Lurizan village trawled wet sand while their husbands went to sea, often for several months at a time.



Two very simple methods are used: the first is with a rake rake mushy sand and collect as much as possible in a bucket shellfish. Other assemblers wear waterproof neoprene jackets or clothes for river fishing and go waist-deep into cold waters further into bay. They use a rake attached to a metal cage to scrape and sift the sand from the bottom before raising the catch.






These diggers are allowed to mine a total of about 10 kilograms of shellfish of two different types every day. Tides and the weather determines when they can work, but there are also times when water pollution leads to a ban on catching shells. Nowadays, according to them, mollusks of all kinds have become much smaller, perhaps due to climate change.



Pickers sell their catch at the city's fish market, from where it is distributed to fishmongers throughout the country before to get as expensive dishes in restaurants and at home.






Shellfish hunters work about three hours a day at for 15 or 16 days a month. On average, they earn 100 euros (107 dollars) per shift, depending on market prices.