Fishing at Port Said Requires Patience of Saint

Covered by: Nour Elhoda Fouad

CAIRO, Nov. 7 (SEE)- Port Said’s fishermen work from dawn till dusk to get a huge number of fish inside their nets. However, the activity needs great patience.

It is worth noting that there are various types of fishing and that each fish has a different way and tool, to catch and pull from water.

On the coast of Port Said, one can see fishermen start working right by the dawn every day. They tend to expand the nets for as lengthy distance as possible and prepare to spend the whole day in their location before pulling their nets in what is called “Garaffa” or “Dahra” as we were told by one of their seniors.

Speaking to ‘SEE’, Mohamed Elsahrawy, a leader among fishermen, said that fishing is not as simple as people think, but rather a profession that has its traditions, starting with selecting suitable boat and getting official permissions for practice fishing.

Due to big number of applicants, the authorities stopped issuing permissions, and that’s why the only way now to start this job is through buying a boat with its permission. The job is quite supervised by authorities. A fisherman can never go to the waters without a trip permission each time that registers the starting and ending times of the trip and the people on board.

Elsahrawy explained the different types of fishing: “Garaffa” (beach fishing) involves extending nets for as long distance as possible and left for one day and pulled next morning, while “Shanshola” is a special net that is formed to catch ‘sardine’. It involves using certain sensor machines to spot where that fish exists under the water, especially at night. They can also be pulled from water after getting the fish gathered around a certain light.

On other hand, there is “Alkanar”, which is a special type of nets that are extended by the surface (only around half a meter deep in water). Those nets are left in water for one day. “They fish crab, shrimps and other kinds of fish, according to Elsahraway.

He elaborated that fishing by nets is different from fishing by personal hook, as the latter is done from boats located in the middle of the waters, and by using sardine or small fish as to attract big fishes.

”Still there are amateur fishermen who practice fishing inpidually,” Elsahraway said.

The fisherman concluded that this profession depends on those who already have boats and partner with groups of fishermen who work on this boat, and pide in half the productions’ profits.