TUNISIA / OVERFISHING

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In a small fishing village in Tunisia, overfishing has destroyed people's livelihoods. Now fishermen are trying to restore the fish stock and safeguard a way of life that has been passed down through generations. UNTV
Description

STORY: TUNISIA/ MARINE RESOURCES
TRT: 9:31
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
SOURCE: UNTV
LANGUAGE: ARABIC/ FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE:

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Shotlist

1. Various shots, fishing boats in water
2. Various shots, Hassen getting ready to begin the work day
3. Various shots, Hassen and his brother setting up for fishing
4. Various shots, Hassen going out to fish on a boat
5. Various shots, palm fronds in water
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“Charfia is a traditional way of fishing, and it’s the best way because it doesn’t harm the sea.”
7. Various shots, palm trees under water
8. Zoom in, fish in wire basket pulled onto the boat
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“Charfia is going to vanish. There is not enough fish to allow us to make a living.”
10. Zoom in, map showing Tunisia, Gulf of Gabes and Kerkennah Islands
11. Various shots, underwater sea grass beds
12. Wide shot, man walking in waters
13. Various shots, men setting up charfia
14. Various shots, fish swimming along palm leaves
15. Various shots, Hassen hauling up a basket
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“In 1986, I used to bring from the charfia 150 to 200 kilos, even 300 kilos per day. But today we got only two and a half to three kilos.”
17. Pan right, fish in a box
18. Various shots, soft water waves
19. Wide shot, industrial skyline
20. Wide shot, motorized boats on water
21. Various shots, underwater nets and bottom trawlers
22. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“The big boats came, and they took every fish with them. Everyone is acting violently towards the sea.”
23. Various shots, boats
24. Various shots, Hassen and brother on boat
25. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“When the water gets hot, the fish move away and go to deeper waters.”
26. SOUNDBITE (French) Hamadi Trabelsi, Meteorologist for the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme:
“According to the measurement of the Institute of Science and Technology of the Sea, the temperature of sea water in the Gulf of Gabes, including Kerkennah, has risen one degree.”
27. Various shots, Hamadi on computer
28. Various shots, coastline
29. SOUNDBITE (French) Hamadi Trabelsi, Meteorologist for the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme:
“In Kerkennah, you will see palm trees and other trees dying because of sea water intrusion”
30. Med shot, Najib pointing at something in water
31. Pan right, beach with palm trees
32. SOUNDBITE (French) Najib Mallek, President of the Environmental Commission of the local Lion’s Club:
“A few years ago, the sea was there. There were three beautiful palm trees here. Now they are dead because of the rising sea and erosion.”
33. Close up, older woman
34. Various shots, women working in the fields
35. Wide shot, fields
36. Wide shot, fisherman carrying wood box
37. Various shots, fishermen, abandoned homes and cruise ships
38. Various shots, inside Hassen’s house with father
39. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen’s Father:
“The sea is not what it used to be. Should my sons go begging for money? Or should they get a big boat and go trawling to feed the family?”
40. Various shots, fish being weighed
41. Wide shot, birds flying along the shore
42. Various aerial views of coastline using Google Earth
43. Tracking shot, Habib walking
44. SOUNDBITE (French) Habib Ben Moussa, Director at the National Agency for Coastal Management, part of the Ministry of Environment:
“We monitor and we analyze marine water in about seven hundred stations; we conduct thousands of analyses every year. We took all the measures to make sure that not even a drop of untreated water arrives in the Mediterranean Sea.”
45. Various shots, man on computer
46. Wide shot, water treatment plant
47. SOUNDBITE (French) Habib Ben Moussa, Director at the National Agency for Coastal Management, part of the Ministry of Environment:
“And right now, we are working to put into place a management plan to protect marine and coastal areas. Specifically there is one in the Kerkennah.”
48. Various shots, dropping cement with spade
49. Various shots, Abdelkader and man walking by cement blocks
50. SOUNDBITE (French) Adbelkader Baouendi is the national coordinator of Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme:
“Any fishermen who fish with tools which don’t protect the environment and natural resources will lose their nets. Their nets will remain caught in these blocks.”
51. Various shots, fishermen dropping cement blocks in water
52. Various shots, underwater plants
53. Various shots, boats on water
54. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“We were happy when it was extended to three months. The sea will get some rest. We need to preserve and take care of the fish eggs.”
55. Pan left, fishermen boats moored in harbour
56. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“The climate has changed, and the winds too.”
57. Wide shot, wind on palm tree
58. Various shots, fishing boat, degraded sea grass beds, erosion
59. Various shots, fishermen with boats on water
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“The climate has changed, and the winds too. We have to protect the region, piece by piece. I don’t say it will succeed in six months or one year, but God willing, it will succeed in two years. I will sacrifice and give everything for it. I will not give it up.”
60. Various shots, Hassen with brother on their motorized boat

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Storyline

In Tunisia, fishing villages are on the brink of collapse, but local fishermen have some innovative solutions.

The oceans play an essential role in sustaining life, but marine resources are increasingly being depleted. That's what's happened in a small fishing village in Tunisia, where over fishing has destroyed people's livelihoods. We take you there to see how local fishermen are bringing back the fish and safeguarding an activity that has been passed through generations.

It’s been this way almost every morning for forty years. Hassen Ben Mansour leaves his house before dawn and drives to the harbour.

Hassen’s brother, Fathi, waits in their small boat. With the practiced ease of decades of experience, they set off quickly to fishing.

They always arrive at the same spot, an area marked by lines of palm tree leaves. Called Charfia, it’s a centuries-old fishing practice.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“Charfia is a traditional way of fishing, and it’s the best way because it doesn’t harm the sea.”

But beneath the water’s quiet surface there is another story. The Charfia fishermen of Tunisia’s Kerkennah Islands are struggling with declining catches and income, as change threatens the survival of fishermen, a way of life as well as the sea itself.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“Charfia is going to vanish. There is not enough fish to allow us to make a living.”

Part of North Africa, Tunisia’s coastline runs more than 1,300 kilometres along the Mediterranean Sea. Here, the Kerkennah archipelago sits barely an hour’s ferry ride from the mainland in the Gulf of Gabes. Population: 12,000.

The shallow waters surrounding the islands are home to vast beds of sea grass. The dense vegetation supplies food, oxygen and vital nurseries for a myriad of marine species.

It’s a fertile fishing ground that has sustained Kerkennah’s islanders for centuries. Fishermen, relying on nature’s resources, as well as their own knowledge of tides and currents, have developed an intricate system for catching fish.

From high above, the charfia look like arrows in the open sea. Walls of palm leaves, placed perpendicular to the currents, block the path of fish. Looking for an exit, the fish follow the palms that channel them into a first “capture room”.

Their only escape is a second “capture room”, and doors that lead to large baskets called “houses”.

Although Charfia is a sustainable way of harvesting marine life, Hassen’s baskets are not as full as they used to be. Fish are getting scarce and smaller.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“In 1986, I used to bring from the charfia 150 to 200 kilos, even 300 kilos per day. But today we got only two and a half to three kilos.”

Marine pollution is a key factor in the fisheries decline. Decades of rapid industrialization and unchecked development around the port city of Sfax led to vast amounts of untreated water being dumped into the sea, damaging much of the habitat in the Gulf of Gabes.

But the most destructive factor has been the increase in the number of motorized fishing boats using destructive fishing practices, like bottom trawling.

Heavy chains rake up the sea bottom, scraping away all vegetation, nets scooping up everything in their path. Once destroyed, it will take at least fifteen years or more for the sea grass to regenerate.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“The big boats came, and they took every fish with them. Everyone is acting violently towards the sea.”

And making matters worse, an already depleted sea is getting warmer.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“When the water gets hot, the fish move away and go to deeper waters.”

SOUNDBITE (French) Hamadi Trabelsi, Meteorologist for the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme:
“According to the measurement of the Institute of Science and Technology of the Sea, the temperature of sea water in the Gulf of Gabes, including Kerkennah, has risen one degree.”

Hamadi Trabelsi, a meteorologist for the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, says not only have the waters gotten warmer in the last thirty years, but the sea level is also rising with disastrous results.

SOUNDBITE (French) Hamadi Trabelsi, Meteorologist for the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme:
“In Kerkennah, you will see palm trees and other trees dying because of sea water intrusion.”

SOUNDBITE (French) Najib Mallek, President of the Environmental Commission of the local Lion’s Club:
“A few years ago, the sea was there. There were three beautiful palm trees here. Now they are dead because of the rising sea and erosion.”

Island agriculture is also dying. The weather has been getting hotter, rainfall less predictable. The land, like the sea, is losing its capacity to provide.

Longer and more frequent droughts together with declining fisheries have forced many islanders to abandon their homes and migrate to the mainland in search of a better life.

Those who remain, like Hassen’s family, face an increasingly grim future. Hassen told his father that they made only 25 dollars for the day.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen’s Father:
“The sea is not what it used to be. Should my sons go begging for money? Or should they get a big boat and go trawling to feed the family?”

What’s at stake here is not just the livelihoods of the charfia fishermen, but also the survival of one of the world’s richest sea grass meadows.

Limiting marine pollution is the first crucial step. Since the 1990s, the government of Tunisia has increased investments in new waste water treatment plants to control urban and industrial waste discharges into the open sea.

Habib Ben Moussa, Director at the National Agency for Coastal Management, part of the Ministry of Environment.

SOUNDBITE (French) Habib Ben Moussa, Director at the National Agency for Coastal Management, part of the Ministry of Environment:
“We monitor and we analyze marine water in about seven hundred stations; we conduct thousands of analyses every year. We took all the measures to make sure that not even a drop of untreated water arrives in the Mediterranean Sea. And right now, we are working to put into place a management plan to protect marine and coastal areas. Specifically there is one in the Kerkennah.”

One project supports this experiment created by fishermen in Ouled Ezzeddine village. They are making cement blocks. Once placed in the sea, the blocks become obstacles to bottom trawling.

SOUNDBITE (French) Adbelkader Baouendi is the national coordinator of Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme:
“Any fishermen who fish with tools which don’t protect the environment and natural resources will lose their nets. Their nets will remain caught in these blocks.”

Local fishermen have dropped over a thousand of these cement blocks and plan to place thousands more. Designed with holes, they also provide a home for young marine life.

In 2009, Tunisia passed a new regulation limiting fishing in the marine protected areas. Called a period of biological rest, these seasonal closures allow young fish to reach maturity so that they can reproduce.

Fishermen in the Gulf of Gabes were asked to stop fishing in July. In return, they received government compensation for their financial losses. The closure was later extended through September and will continue in subsequent years.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“We were happy when it was extended to three months. The sea will get some rest. We need to preserve and take care of the fish eggs.”

While important, these local efforts alone are not enough to bring the fish back.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“The climate has changed, and the winds too.”

NARRATION:
What’s missing, he says, is a wind called Shlouk that came every October.

HASSEN: (In Arabic)
“Shlouk is the one that rejuvenates the sea and brings fish from far away. Now the Shlouk is weak and doesn’t get here…

Erratic weather, declining fishery, degraded habitats, marine erosion – it all adds up to a perfect storm of consequences for the fishermen of Kerkennah.

Hassen is hopeful that the efforts against pollution and over-fishing will restore the marine habitats and bring back the fish.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassen Ben Mansour, Fisherman:
“The climate has changed, and the winds too. We have to protect the region, piece by piece. I don’t say it will succeed in six months or one year, but God willing, it will succeed in two years. I will sacrifice and give everything for it. I will not give it up.”

For the charfia fishermen, inaction would mean the complete collapse of their fishery.

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Production Date
Creator
UNTV
Geographic Subject
MAMS Id
U100612a