Vildan Bedir is the first member of her family in generations unable to make a living from the picturesque waters off Turkey’s Bozburun peninsula. Her grandfather and father were sponge divers, and Bedir herself fishes on red mullet, whiting, and horse mackerel.
Eyes lowered, Bedir, 55, said that she and her husband still fish a few months each year. But now, most of their income comes from growing wheat and picking olives – her former livelihood a victim of a changing climate, overfishing, and the spread of invasive species.
“We just can’t make ends meet through fishing alone,” Bedir said, her hands fidgeting with an olive branch.
“At first, we tried changing the way we did things, like using a bigger net or changing fishing areas. Otherwise, it was not possible to continue.”
But with other costs rising, it was not enough. “We had to begin relying on picking and what we can grow in our garden.”
Thirty-five years ago, Bedir and her husband turned to fishing to survive financial difficulties. With borrowed money, they bought a boat and fell in love with life on the sea.
Even now, talking about fishing and the sea still lights up Bedir’s face, but the conversation always returns to her fears for the future.
“I don’t just want to show pictures of the fish to my grandchildren. I want them to be able to continue the practice of fishing,” Bedir said.
Bedir is not the only fisher feeling the negative effect of declining fish stocks. The deteriorating marine biodiversity is a major concern for all fishers, as well as government officials and civil society organizations, as interviewed by The New Arab. Yet disagreement over responsibilities and solutions is creating an increasingly somber outlook for the sector.
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