Lebanon’s spearfishers fight to preserve stocks
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Hunting fish with spear guns may seem like a counterintuitive way to save Lebanon’s dwindling marine life, but a growing community of freedivers argues it is a potent awareness-raising tool. At 5:00 am, three men park their car in the northern port of Qalamun. Grabbing their fins, masks and spear guns, they board a boat and set out to sea. Wrapped in tight camouflage wetsuits as they skim across the silvered water, these amateur underwater hunters resemble their counterparts the world over.
Rachid Zock and his friends say that by promoting regulated spearfishing, they are also defending Lebanon’s fast-depleting aquatic wildlife. Zock, 38, a freediving and spearfishing instructor, says he has seen Lebanon’s fish populations drop in the three decades he has been exploring its waters. “I started fishing underwater aged seven, and I used to see so many fish of different shapes and sizes. But they’ve diminished over the years,” he says. The divers float, head down on the water like tree leaves.
Suddenly, one of them duck dives, piercing the surface as he heads vertically into the blue. Others watch through their masks to make sure he is safe, as he fins a dozen metres down, clutching his spear gun. He can stay down
for more than two minutes on a single breath.
Overfishing
The fish populations living off Lebanon’s northern coastline have shrunk in recent years, fishermen say. And the European Commission estimates that 90 percent of fish species surveyed in the Mediterranean are overfished, it said in April 2017 following a study. The EC launched an initiative with non European Union countries - dubbed MedFish4Ever - to address the issue after a ministerial conference last year. But Lebanon, which had 7,000 fishermen in 2014 and where fishing only makes up a tiny part of the economy, has not signed up.
Faysal Tawokji, 25, says he has been diving to set up underwater fish traps every day for 12 years. “I was catching 40 kilos (just over 88 pounds) of fish a day in 2016 but that decreased to half the next year,” he says. His income has not improved since. “I’ve lost hope and decided to leave Lebanon - because of the small catches and the competition from imported fish at half the price,” says the young fisherman. Chance to replenish
Retired fisherman Hassan Mallat, 74, says Lebanon’s fish stocks are hit by pollution, bad practices and overfishing. “Some fishermen have deliberately tightened their net holes to grab more produce,” he says, looking up from below his old goggles. “They are preventing small fish from growing and multiplying. Bigger fish that succeed in fleeing toward the shore to lay eggs are caught by traps.” Spearfishing instructor Zock says that, when treated properly, the sea’s resources replenish themselves.