FISHERMEN have called for a rethink on a ban on trawling and rules for Bahraini captains, saying they could harm their livelihoods.
A ban on trawling was introduced in 2018 as a way to put an end to indiscriminate shrimping and protect some species of endangered marine life.
Trawling involves dragging heavy weighted nets across the sea floor, in an effort to catch fish.
It’s a favoured method by commercial fishing companies because it can catch large quantities of fish in one go.
However, the downside with trawling is that it’s indiscriminate in what it catches. When dragging the nets across the seafloor, everything that happens to be in the way gets swept up in the net too.
This affects the biodiversity of the ocean, and also means that many species are being fished to the brink of extinction.
In addition to turtles, juvenile fish and invertebrates that get swept up in trawling nets, deep sea corals are hidden victims of trawling.
Deep sea coral forests, thought to be some of the most biodiverse ecosystems, can take years to form. When a trawler runs over them again and again to catch fish, they’re destroyed.
Professional Fishermen Association president Jassim bin Jiran, however, told the GDN he wished the issue of trawling could be dealt with in a sustainable way, suggesting it could be regulated instead of an outright ban.
“The ban on trawling came all of a sudden and people with families who have been living off shrimping for the past 50 to 60 years, are suddenly finding themselves at a loss.
“Agreed that trawling has its downside but it should not have been banned outright.
“If there are disadvantages to a certain method of fishing, then the authorities should sit down with the fishermen and come up with rules and regulations to minimise the damages.
“The fishermen were compensated when the government bought off their boats but all that money was spent on settling debts.
“These fishermen cannot retrain for any other jobs – it’s all they know – and now they have no jobs.”
On another issue, Mr Bin Jibran said it was not feasible to have a Bahraini captain on each fishing boat, as there were simply not enough Bahraini captains for each boat.
The move was introduced to prevent overfishing as fishermen who owned several boats send out expat fishermen to sea.
He also pointed out that ever since territorial boundaries were drawn with Qatar, Bahraini fishermen had lost half of the rich fishing spots which dropped from 20 to 10.
“The reason why the price of fish has gone up is because it became harder to get the catch; it’s happening all over the GCC because of over-population, environmental issues, and border issues.
“We hope the entire Gulf is opened up for fishing and fishermen from all over the GCC can benefit from the bounties of the sea.”
Mr Bin Jibran said any fishing boat found near Qatar’s territorial waters are threatened at gunpoint, forced to enter Qatari waters and then arrested for trespassing.
“The Bahraini fishermen are detained for months before being allowed to see a judge, who then sentences them to more time in jail. Even after they have served their time, they have to wait longer to be allowed to return to Bahrain.
“In our association, which has nearly 100 members, every one of us has had an encounter like this. I had three boats taken from me in one day.”
MP Khalid Bu Onk told the GDN that the fishermen have not been presented with an alternative for trawling.
“There is no other method to shrimp than trawling. The minister said there was but did not say what that was,” he said.
“There used to be 271 shrimping licences; now there are nearly 20 or 10 who didn’t sell their equipment.
“The Bahraini captain initiative will reduce the number of licences that are being rented or bought by migrant workers.”
He also said there has to be a fund to support the fishermen as this was a heritage job.
Mr Bu Onk called for a ban on exporting crabs, as the crustaceans act as bait for fish as well natural food for them, and they clean the sea floor.
ghazi@gdn.com.bh
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