Netting more in Ecuador: a photographer captures the rhythm of coastal fishing towns where this industry continues to be the hook to life.

• Author: Englebert, Victor

The sardine fishermen of Machalilla are returning from the sea. The pale blue light of dawn is barely enough to see by. But human and animal activity alike has already reached fever pitch. Men come and go between the thirteen boats anchored in the bay and the beach, transporting the catch in colorful fiberglass pangas, or launches. Others, jogging to their own rhythm, take up the relay on land, carrying the fish on their shoulders in heavy plastic tubs to makeshift processing tables under thatch roofs. These are commercial fishermen, catching sardines for the canners in Manta, Guayaquil, and La Libertad.

Frenzied by the prospect of a feast, hundreds of frigate birds and some gulls are flying in erratic circles above the boats and canoes, darkening the sky and filling the air with shrill cries. Unable to compete with their skill in the air, the pelicans float around the boats. Stolid black buzzards, armed solely with the patience of carrion eaters, are content to wait on land for leavings thrown their way by the workers. But they have little time to enjoy them, for dogs and pigs are also lying in wait.

The behavior of the frigate birds is startling. They pounce down on the tubs that the men carry up the beach and, though the contents are covered, often succeed in grabbing a fish from inside. When their attacks increase, other men run alongside the carriers, waving their arms above their heads. One of the frantic birds, in full flight, actually pulls a fish right out of a man's hand. A minute later, another one scrapes my cheek. Seeing this, a couple of men breakfasting on ceviche at a plastic table on the beach beside a tricycle food stall cover their plates with their hands.

It is a spectacular scene. As the last of the haul reaches land, the tremendous agitation gradually subsides. It is about nine o'clock, and I catch a bus on the nearby highway back to Puerto Lopez, where I am staying, seven miles south.

With fifteen thousand inhabitants, Puerto Lopez is larger than Machalilla. While Machalilla boasts a small, tidy center of large, handsome brick houses standing next to clusters of bamboo huts, Puerto Lopez appear to be undergoing a construction boom, with many unfinished houses showing only openings for windows.

But Puerto Lopez, out of economic necessity, has been able to attract tourism, both foreign and Ecuadoran. It offers diving, boat rides to nearby islands such as Isla de la Plata, humpback whale watching in season (June to...