Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
annual salary would be just over 3 million meticais. or US$260, signii -
cantly higher than that of the net i shers (see Table 8.4). However, i shing
crew had up to ten days of per month to do other work such as on their
machambas
and some were able to supplement their income from net
i shing with other types of i shing, for example spear-i shing. Jobs in the
coconut plantation were limited, but many people claimed to prefer i shing
to plantation work. Fishing may have been chosen despite the less regular
income for social reasons. On the i shing boats there was an atmosphere
of cooperation and everyone, regardless of age or experience, appeared to
be treated equally (with the exception perhaps of the young boys who start
of as apprentices and have to do some of the unpleasant jobs). Although
the hauling of the i shing nets was extremely hard work, much of the
time spent out i shing was spent sailing between i shing sites when i shers
talked, sang and seemed to enjoy themselves. The coconut plantation,
the only source of formal daily employment on the island of ered regular
work that did not depend on the weather or the state of a leaky boat. It
also of ered extra benei ts such as the opportunity to buy some foodstuf s
cheaper and some free medical treatment. However, the plantation was
run by white farmers of European origin and there was some historical
resentment of working for white plantation owners, with the memory of
ruthless Portuguese plantation and sisal factory owners still fairly recent.
The parents of some of the young i shers were employed by the Portuguese
in this way before independence.
Fisheries elsewhere in the region, in Tanzania, the Comores and
Seychelles for example, have developed as local economies have expanded.
Fishers have left traditional i shing methods behind to use outboard
engines and more sophisticated gear. The i shers of Quirimba did not use
outboard engines on their boats. The i shing boat owners on Quirimba
appeared to have been earning enough to potentially be able to buy boat
engines in the future, although it wasn't something any of them talked
about doing. The main obstacle to this may not have been so much the
cost (although this is likely to be extremely high - import tax of 300 per
cent is commonly charged on certain imports and the cost of transporting
a boat engine from South Africa to the north of Mozambique may also be
enormous) but the availability. If no one is importing engines to Pemba,
which was the case during the study period, no one will be able to buy
them. Much larger sums of money than the local boat owners have access
to would be needed for actually importing numbers of engines from South
Africa.
Another reason for the lack of engines may have been that even with
engines it would not necessarily be ei cient to i sh on the outer reefs
instead of in the seagrass beds. Weather conditions in the area were very
