‘Kings of the world’: The last of the horseback shrimp fishers

The centuries-old tradition is now only practiced in one Belgian coastal village. Can it last amid climate change?

Oostduinkerke, Belgium – A few hours after dawn one late July morning, the sound of Gregory Debruyne’s horse Kelly trotting through the verdant lanes of Oostduinkerke echoes through the quaint coastal village in west Belgium.

Pulling a cart filled with fishing gear and equipment to sift shrimps, Kelly – a brown Belgian draught horse – and Debruyne are heading towards the sandy shores of the North Sea to go shrimp fishing.

Debruyne is a Belgian horseback shrimp fisherman in Oostduinkerke – the last place in the world where this centuries-old practice of catching shrimp using horses rather than boats continues.

“I learned horseback shrimp fishing from my father when I was 11 years old,” Debruyne, now 27, tells Al Jazeera, as he gets Kelly ready to fish for the day in the village centre, close to the sea.

Dozens of tourists are crowding around them and eagerly watching as Debruyne covers Kelly with a warm blanket and mounts two brown baskets on either side of her back. He also attaches a chained net to her tail.