Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
since 1994 but the prices of nets have evidently fallen as supply networks
to the area have improved. In the 1980s the price of i sh in Cabo Delgado
was kept artii cially elevated; the price of i sh decreased nine-fold since
1986 from US$3.37 for a kilo of i sh in Pemba to just US$0.39 in 1993
(during the 1980s ordinary people in Pemba did not eat local i sh, but
ate i sh imported from around Africa - there was a notorious poisoning
incident from freshwater i sh - M. Carvalho pers. comm.). Fishers in the
area have very low i nancial incentives and little access to new gear, pre-
cluding anything more than subsistence i shing (Republic of Mozambique
State Secretariat of Fisheries, 1994a) and also face the storage and
transportation problems mentioned above.
National per capita consumption of i sh was estimated at 5.1kg per year
in 1994 (Republic of Mozambique State Secretariat of Fisheries, 1994b). It
is likely that per capita consumption of i sh on Quirimba greatly exceeded
this national value. Fishers and their families shared about 1kg of i sh per
i shing day. Each person ate approximately 100g per day on i shing days
(16 days per month), giving 1.6kg per month and a minimum of 19.2kg
of i sh per year. In addition to this dried i sh was also often eaten on the
non- i shing days.
In 1989 Cabo Delgado had 4539 i shers accounting for 0.7 per cent of
the working population, the same proportion of i shers in the population
as was seen on a national scale. Quirimba Island had approximately 400
i shers in a population of 3000, so i shers there accounted for at least 10 per
cent of the population and a much higher percentage of the working popu-
lation. Between 1989 and 1994 the number of i shers nationally increased
from 52 000 to 80 000 and a similar increase would be expected in Cabo
Delgado. This increase has mainly been attributed to the displacement
of the population towards the coast because of the civil war (Republic of
Mozambique State Secretariat of Fisheries, 1994b; Hatton and Massinga,
1994). With this migration there has been a disproportionate increase in
the numbers of people living of subsistence i shing, often the only source
of food and employment to displaced people. The pressure on artisanal
coastal i sheries has been particularly intense because, although there was
a surge of people to the coast in the 1980s and early 1990s, there was no
accompanying development of the local i shing industry or related diver-
sii cation of activities. This situation is described as having led to the local
population and the refugees collectively mining as opposed to husbanding
the littoral resources (Hatton and Massinga, 1994).
Employment opportunities and salaries
Workers on the coconut plantation or in other daily employment worked
six days a week all year, a total of 312 days per year. Their potential
