Hunters Of The Bohol Sea

Nature, third prize stories

1998

For generations the fishermen of the tiny island of Pamilacan have been known as the Hunters of the Bohol Sea. Once they concentrated their efforts on whales and manta rays, recently they turned their skills to whale sharks. Rather than nets or harpoons, the men use hardened steel hooks to catch the giant sharks by hand. Once caught, the whale sharks are towed back to shore alive, then killed and cut up for sale. A dead fish would sink and pull the boat down with it. The government of the Philippines has recently decreed whale shark hunting illegal.

Commissioned by: for Mare Magazine

Photo Credit: Jurgen Freund

Jürgen Freund was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1959. He is fondly called Yogi as Jürgen can be pronounced a million different ways causing him some shivers. He studied mechanical engineering and found out it wasn’t creative enough for his inventive mind. Instead of designing machines, he worked as an industrial photographer in Munich for 7 years. Lured by the challenge of marine wildlife photography, he acquired an underwater camera even before learning how to scuba-dive in 1981 in the cold lakes of Germany. Finally, he answered “the call of the sea” and became a full-time freelance marine and wildlife photographer in 1995 getting his work published internationally. He has traveled all over the world, taking highly acclaimed images published worldwide.