Fishermen of Coquimbo

Coquimbo, Chile – July 2002

A barber shaving an old fisherman at caleta (a service yard) in the port of Coquimbo, Chile. Most of the fishermen prefer to live and do all the daily things close to the sea. The cold and oxygenated water of the Humboldt Current which flows in the Pacific Ocean north-westward along the Chilean coast is the most productive marine ecosystem in the world supporting an extraordinary abundance of marine life. Since long ago these natural conditions layed the foundations of the fishery development on the entire Chilean costline. Although the industrial fishing methods have been implemented in the last decades and Chile has become the chief fishery of South America, the traditional artisanal (small-scale) fishery still plays an important role in the Chilean fishing industry and – due to the distribution of fishermen in the working class – in the Chilean society too.