The Yellow River has provided an unlikely livliehood for local fishermen. (Image by Thomas Kraus.)

Jo Ling Kent of CNN has a creepy, fascinating report about Chinese fishermen in the bustling Gansu Province who are literally fishers of men–or women or children. The fishermen trawl the Yellow River for dead bodies of suicides and murder victims that have found their way to the water. After the bodies are identified, they sell the corpses to the immediate families of the deceased so they can give them proper burials. It’s a brisk business, but the embarrassed government is doing what it can to shut it down. (Thanks Reddit.) An excerpt:

“Wei Jinpeng has retrieved nearly 100 bodies per year since he started in 2003. The former pear farmer and his two sons dragged bodies ashore in their modest boat until recently, when the government put a stop to their work. Spooked by media attention, the fishermen have been warned to dock their boats and stop fishing for bodies.

‘I can’t go out on the water anymore,’ Wei told CNN at his home. ‘The police have already fined me several times. They don’t like what we’re doing. As for the money I used to make, I just don’t make it anymore.’

But Lun Lun takes his chances. He says there is still potentially big money to be made.

‘If I turned the body over to the local authorities, I got less money,’ he said. ‘If I contact families directly, I can be paid about 3000 yuan, much more than the government would offer.'”