Wednesday, June 27, 2012

All in a day's work


About two weeks before I arrived in Mozambique, the local fishermen in Tofo had received a fishing boat as part of a governmental incentive to assist fishers along the coast. This boat is larger and has an outboard motor which is a significant improvement from the row boats they are accustomed to using for their daily trips onto the ocean. Despite the good intentions of this gesture, the Marine Mega-fauna Foundation witnessed some disturbing results. The boat is outfitted with large gill nets designed for offshore use. The first day that the boat was taken out, researchers here at the foundation were disappointed to watch the fishers bringing in a large number of mobular rays, sharks, and a variety of reef fish. All indications that the fishers had been fishing on the near-shore reef systems instead of taking the nets out into deep water where they could catch large pelagic fish. MMF was key in an effort to beach this boat and prevent further destructive fishing practices from occurring until governmental officials could decide upon the best way to proceed. Since then the government has been hosting a series of meetings to try and come to an agreement between the government officials and fishermen. The result was that the government has now sold the boat to the fishers for their continued use under the restriction that they do not use the gill net but only fish with hand lines. Over the weekend, the boat was once again taken out to sea but the restriction was ignored and gill nets were once again deployed. Several researchers at MMF were waiting on the beach when they returned to count the catch which consisted of two sharks, seventeen mobular rays, and a variety of reef fish.

It was a memorable experience for me as I tried to obtain high quality photographs of what was occurring while trying to avoid conflict with the fishermen themselves. There were two specific individuals who were not pleased with the presence of photographers and confronted us many times over the hour and a half that we were on the beach. As I stood there, I had mixed feelings about the situation unfolding before me. It is an extremely destructive practice and, if it continues, could collapse the delicate system here in the waters around Tofo. However, these fishermen are simply trying to make a living. They do not have the right kind of education to understand the way that the ocean ecosystem functions and are only concerned with trying to feed their families. Seventeen rays and two sharks lying dead on the beach is very sad and is bad for the local populations of those species. But when I think of the large industrial trawlers out in the ocean bringing up thousands of sharks in a single day, I know that the practices of these fishers is only a small part of a much larger problem.

Somethings you know exist, but you can't quite understand or appreciate it till you see it for yourself. It is like someone trying to explain the sound of a symphony to you. You can understand what they are talking about and, perhaps, have some reference to compare it to, but until you've heard it for yourself you can never fully comprehend the beauty and awe that it evokes. I felt my heart start to race when I watched a fishermen pull one of the sharks away from the boat, grasp the dorsal fin in one hand, and slice the fin away from the body with a knife. Shark finning happening before my very eyes. Something that I've read about, learned statistics, given presentations to educate others, but now I've seen it in person. I know its real. And I have the pictures to prove it.











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