"For centuries, Fijians like Ravea have paddled out once, if not twice, each day to scour the ocean for their daily catch. Every day, we should be able to eat something from the sea, says Ravea, who wears a deep blue sulu, a traditional wrap, around her waist. But times are hard, the shells are sometimes dead, and the oil from yachts spreads over the sea and kills the fish."
"With 40 percent of Fijian households relying on subsistence fishing amid declining fish stocks, coastal communities are seeking ways to make a sustainable income. Ravea, who has fished these waters for more than five decades, has long feared that the decline in fish goes beyond the ebb and flow of natural weather patterns. She blames climate change and poachers. In need of reliable pay, she was the first in her family to strap on a scuba tank and search the seafloor for black-lip pearl oysters 25 years ago."
Coastal communities in Fiji have long depended on the sea for food and materials, but fish stocks and shell life are declining due to storms, oil spills from yachts, climate change and poaching. About 40 percent of Fijian households rely on subsistence fishing, driving communities to seek sustainable income alternatives. Jelly Ravea, a lifelong fisher, transitioned to diving for black-lip pearl oysters and helped develop local oyster farms. Oyster farming delivers lucrative pearls and can provide a climate-resilient meat trade and reliable pay for villagers. Community aquaculture initiatives and projects like the AQUA-Pearl Project support these emerging livelihoods.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]