Cascais is a town about 30 kilometers west of Lisbon that changed during Roman times into a fishing town where hard work continues to this day in the artisanal fishing port. The fishery is located next to Praia de Ribeira, a beach that is located in the bay of Cascais where a diversity of fish swims.
Pedro is a fisherman born and raised in Cascais. For 15 years he has been working together with his boss and another co-worker on a small fishing boat. There isn’t a day when he isn’t out at sea catching octopus, bass, or squid.
Behind Pedro, you can see dozens of octopus traps. When the fishermen use these traps they are fishing passively. The octopus traps are thrown to the seabed, where they are then retrieved after a few days. In the meantime, the fishermen hope the octopuses will crawl into a trap while taking shelter.
Andrés walked around with a bucket containing some small-sized sea bass. Besides octopus being caught all year round, which 90% of the fishing boats in Cascais do, the focus is on catching sea bass from January to May. So the sea bass season has just started.
It’s late afternoon when Carlos is busy in the fishery untying his fishing net that is both scattered on the road and in the way of the passing cars that keep tangling it.
The late afternoon is used by some fishermen to take the fishing nets apart, but some fishermen use this time to take a shower and retreat to one of the sheds seen in the photo.