(ERGO) – More than 300 fishermen in Gumbah, in Somalia’s north eastern Bari region, have been put out of work by the theft and damage of their fishing equipment and threats by foreign trawlers.
Hassan Abdirahman Omar, who has been making a living at sea for 15 years, has quit after losing all his nets and boats.
“The foreigners pose a great challenge. They have taken all our equipment and there is nothing we can use now. People are just sitting idle, there are no boats, no nets, or anchors,” he said.
Hassan has been supporting his family of 10 since his father died. He has turned to construction to make ends meet and gets called up once or twice a week for a job site earning $7-8. It is barely enough for his family.
He used to earn about $20 a week selling fish he caught in his village. Sometimes if he caught a shark or other unusual fish he would go to Bosaso market to sell them for extra money.
According to Hassan, most people in Gumbah village have small plots of land that they farm and have no funds to buy new fishing equipment.
Mohamed Awil Mohamud, another local, had nets and other tools worth $2,000 impounded by a foreign trawler.
“You can imagine your equipment just taken by another vessel and it was costing you money – first you sit and just count your losses. That is what prompted me to stop fishing,” he said.
His family of seven children depended on handouts from their relatives and credit from local stores. He had no savings because his income used to be small.
Mohamed used to be a pastoralist keeping 300 goats, although four consecutive rainy seasons took a toll on his livestock and he has only 30 thin and feeble goats left.
The representative of Puntland’s Ministry of Fishing and Marine Resources in Gumbah, Mohamud Said Mohamed, said the fishermen are facing a very difficult situation with their livelihoods in jeopardy. Even fishermen who managed to hang on to their boats and equipment are too fearful to go back out to fish.
He noted that they cannot identify the origin of these foreign trawlers, although the Puntland administration has given out licenses to various countries to fish in their territorial waters.
“These families are mostly from poor backgrounds, some of them have lost all their equipment, and they aren’t able to get it back which forces to stay out of work,” he said.
He added that there have been incidents of foreign trawlers shooting at the local fishermen to force them out of the ocean. The administration is unable to bring them to hold them accountable.
Gumbah village is located 63 kilometres from Baargal district and is known for fishing, although in the last three years there has been a decline in the fishing market with this year being the worst.
