Shellfish
Inspirational films portray seafood women’s lives
Nicki Holmyard
THE third annual video competition organised by the International Association for Women in the Seafood Industry (WSI) asked women to share a short film of their observations and experiences in the industry, and the results are both inspirational and humbling. ‘We reached out to women right across the seafood sector, in fishing, aquaculture, processing, local fish selling and international trading, quality management, certification, teaching, learning, and the wide range of services related to the industry,’ WSI founder Marie Christine Monfort told Fish Farmer.
‘Cash prizes of €1,000 for the winner and €500 for two runners up were offered.
‘Our hope of building on the success of the competition in the previous two years exceeded our expectations and we received 32 entries from around the world,’ she said.
WSI was formed to highlight the important contribution of women to the seafood industry, to raise awareness of gender issues, and to promote professional equality between men and women.
It has a particular interest in promoting young female professionals, who will be the leaders of tomorrow.
‘One seafood worker in two is a woman; they are essential contributors to the industry, but many remain invisible, and the video competition helps to give them a voice and inspire others,’ Monfort said.
Invited on to the judging panel this year, I had no idea that the task would prove to be so difficult, and it took some considerable thought to put my top three forward for final selection.
The standard of the films was high, and many told powerful stories of perseverance and the struggle against circumstance, with women leading hard lives of a type I could not even begin to contemplate. A couple of films
even brought a tear to my eye. All of them left me in awe.
Take the women oyster farmers of Wadatar, on the west coast of India, for example. They used to collect wild oysters, which could only be reached on a handful of days each month. For their efforts, they earned a paltry dollar or two.
Their lives began to change in 2013, when they were encouraged to form a self-help group in order to join a UN development programme; this showed them how to farm oysters in the creek behind their homes.
‘People laughed at us, said it would not work, and initially we thought this is not for us,’ said the women’s leader, Kasturi Dhoki.
‘Then a few of us decided to treat it as a game and see where the process took us.’
They built bamboo frames and suspended ropes underneath, threaded through with empty shells to catch the naturally occurring oyster spat, then waited to see what would happen
‘We were delighted to find that an initial investment of 85 dollars quickly brought in an
eight-fold return, and we are now helping women in other villages to replicate our success,’ said Dhoki.
The women shuck the oysters and sell them loose, either at the market, or from street-side stalls, and are proud of their growing success as oyster farmers and marketeers.
The work of women cockle fishers was highlighted in a couple of films, one of them showing women working up to their waists in the sea, in the pre-dawn dark, using headlamps to light their way, and pushing cockle rakes through the seabed.
While admitting that their task was exhausting, one woman praised her job for allowing her to be ‘independent and the owner of the money I earn’.
The camaraderie and the bond between old and young, as teacher and pupil, was highlighted as an essential element in helping the tradition to continue and maintain viable communities for the future.
A film from the Arousa Sea Women’s Association in Galicia portrayed the work of the women shellfish gatherers, who seed and collect cockles from the estuary.
Their participation in the association has helped them to develop a sense of pride in their work. This had been viewed in the past as being less important and less skilled than the work undertaken by women working in the markets, in processing and on fishing boats.
On Lake Arapa in Peru, women formed a sustainable aquaculture project to grow and market trout.
They process squat lobsters (Munida gregaria), a byproduct of the local fishery, to extract astaxanthin, which is mixed with the trout feed. This gives the flesh a vivid colour, which attracts a high market value.
As well as working on the water, many women are involved in processing the trout, which is filleted and vacuum packed.
They speak of friendship, of mutual support that helps them to say, ‘I can do this too’, and of a real sense achievement.
The success of the trout project is encouraging more young women into the sector, which in turn is helping to strengthen the local community, and the women hope that their story will help to inspire others to emulate their work.
Also from Peru is a tale of women in Arazaire farming pacu, a family of freshwater fish related to the piranha, because the fish they used to eat came from rivers contaminated with mercury.
But from adversity, a thriving business has developed, which goes beyond food security, and which has drawn the community together; a theme that runs through so many of the films.
Matilde Tije Capi explains that early each morning the women have to check the ponds for predators, including crocodiles, before feeding the fish.
‘The project gives us the opportunity to improve the living conditions and the health of our families, and to grow our economy in the medium and long term, because it is sustainable,’ said Capi.
From Madagascar, came a film about women seaweed farmers, narrated by seaweed technician Nadira. The seaweed is grown on longlines suspended in shallow water, and the women seed the lines, keep them clear of other species and monitor progress.
‘The men fish and now the women can get involved in the sea by taking care of the seaweed farms, which gives them a sense of purpose and a new found confidence,’ said Nadira.
In the tourist town of Hogenakkal in the south of India, the Kaveri river forms a spectacular waterfall, known as the Niagara Falls of India.
This popular destination is visited by up to 10,000 people per day, and the attractions surrounding the waterfall support 3,000 local jobs, 500 of which are accounted for by women who run riverside fish eateries.
These ‘Unsung chefs of Hogenakkal’, as the film depicts them, prepare and cook fish grown in the river for the tourists.
The women work up to 10 hours per day at the fish eateries, and are also responsible for looking after their households, while the men fish. Their earnings range from 7-21 dollars per day and they contribute two thirds of the household income.
They are unsung, because the role that these women and others like them play in the rural economy has largely been ignored at local and national level.
However, the women are starting to become more vocal and are slowly gaining greater recognition, and believe that efforts such as the video competition help. ‘The tide is turning,’ they said. All the films can be viewed https://womeninseafood.com/videos-2019/ and are well worth watching.
“The men fish and now the women can get involved in sea” the