The Last Percebe – Galicia, Spain


There are only few fishermen left who dare to dance with the threatening waves of the ocean in Galicia. Every day they risk their lives to feed their families with the rare gooseneck barnacle, in a place that is disturbed by drugs and the extinction of their catch. They descend dozens of meters from razor-sharp rocks in search of a rare shellfish, the percebe, while the fierce waves show no mercy to drag them into the depths of the ocean. In the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia, on the Costa do Morte, you can still find women who take on the hard labor of barnacle fisherwoman, as if it were the most normal job in the world. Dangerous or not, emancipation developed much faster in these regions because of it. Now they are the last women on the rocks, because the precious shellfish is slowly but surely dying, on a coast that is drowning in drugs and environmental problems.