Fishing, The Easy Way!
Lava is plentiful in the Goto Islands—igneous rocks seem to be everywhere and have been for ages. Even recent volcanic eruptions such as Mt. Onidake happened thousands of years before there were people on these islands, so we can assume that the earliest settlers were well acquainted with the black rocks they found everywhere. On Tarojima Island we can see samples of pahoehoe lava, a type that is characterized by multiple thin layers of relatively smooth, hard rock.
Primitive But Fun!
Ancient people here developed an ingenious idea for using lava rocks: a unique form of fishing in the shallow bays created by lava-encrusted coastlines. They used small rocks to build walls when the tides went out. The walls were designed to be near the waterline at high tide. When the tide came in, some fish would swim into the walled area. All the fishermen had to do was wait. When the tide went out again the fish would be trapped, and with the water receding, they could be caught easily by hand or with primitive nets or spikes.
People in the Tomie area called this “shallows fishing.” If you would like to try your hand at it, the nearby camping park, SanSan Tomie Camp Village, provides an opportunity to try out shallows fishing yourself.