This 1,300-year-old fishing technique consists of swinging a basket of flames over the river to wake the ayu river fish, who dart away from their resting spots and give the birds a chance to catch them and then release them into a bucket with the help of the cormorant fishing master, or usho. Climate change is bringing heavy rains and a need for anti-flood barriers on a once calm river, with smaller rocks and sand filling the river bottom and obstructing the larger rocks that form ayu river fish habitats
