(ERGO) – Lifelong Somali fishermen have been forced into unemployment by violent attacks taking place off the Puntland coast that have left families desperate and angry about the lack of protection by the authorities.
According to the chairman of Bosaso fishermen’s association, Muse Ali Muse, some 2,500 fishermen in the area have dropped out because of attacks by unregulated foreign trawlers.
“The fishermen are unemployed and it’s all because of the foreign ships. These people were working on the ocean and making a living from there,” Muse said, warning that the lawlessness at sea was having a devastating effect on the economy of Puntland.
“We could see pirates coming up due to the unemployment. Now is the time to avert this.”
Fisherman Muse Salah Guled, 70, spends his time when he wakes up these days gazing out to sea. He spent 12 years supporting his eight children from the income he used to make with his own boat.
Last November, a larger foreign vessel destroyed his boat, engine, and nets. He had not finished paying for the equipment that cost him $2,800.
“I have been raising my children from the ocean. Some have now got their own houses and others are old enough for marriage. I was fishing for myself, I wasn’t working for someone else. I used to sell my catch in the market,” he said ruefully.
He has no other skills and his family are simply depending on credit from their local store for food.
“We don’t know where to go, we have lived here for long. We don’t have any means to help us through tomorrow or the following days,” he said.
A similar fate befell Nur Abdirahman Mohamed, 61, who was attacked twice, losing his equipment including fishing nets and boat engine. He had invested $2,089 to acquire the fishing gear and saw no option except to quit late last year.
As a father of seven, fishing was the sole source of income for Nur and his family. He had worked in the industry for 16 years.
“My work has been ruined by those ships. As I stand with you now I don’t have a job. I was working at sea and now I am so discouraged. I bought all that equipment that’s been taken away by the ships,” he vented.
Since he became unemployed, four of his children have dropped out of school as he cannot pay the $100 fees. He owes $150 house rent for the past three months. His mother used to sell fish in the streets but she also had to stop working because the fish supply generally has plummeted.
“I don’t have fuel for my boat and I don’t have another job. I haven’t paid my rent. I live in a rented house and so does my mother. We have lived in Puntland for a long time, but out on the ocean there is a big crisis,” he said.
Nur has borrowed 25 kg of food consisting of flour, rice and sugar worth $49 from his relatives and are eking out the supply for as long as they can by cooking just once a day.
The local fishermen who continue to venture out in their boats only cast their nets close to the coastline, where the catches are minimal, as they fear attacks further out to sea. The foreign vessels have been scouring the fish breeding grounds, leaving stocks depleted.
The chairman, Muse, says the fishermen’s association helps its members as much as it can. Whenever one of them has a problem such as needs for medical assistance for a family member or a wife giving birth, they ask other members to contribute what little they can afford.
Muse said they had informed the Puntland fisheries ministry about the crisis and received promises that it would be addressed, although the illegal trawlers were continuing their violent attacks, even shooting at local boats.
The Puntland coastal guard team who used to patrol the sea daily has not been seen for the last one year.
