Capturing the story of Kerkennah Islands

AT WORK: A fisherman untangles his nets. Kraten fishermen have to spend long hours before and after their trips out to the sea untangling and fixing expensive nets, as bottom-trawling equipment often catches conventional nets.By Anand HollaThe peculiar woes of the fishermen of the Kerkennah Islands find a messenger in the striking pictures of Tunisian photographer Douraïd Soussi.At the Stories of Change: Beyond the Arab Spring that was recently held at Building 18, Katara, Soussi’s photo story centred on these islands that form a small archipelago off the east coast of Tunisia, in the Mediterranean Sea, was one of the many that stood out for their interesting big picture story. On World Press Photo’s site, the story is explored at length:Earliest mention of the Kerkennah islands goes back to Phoenician times. The islands were occupied by the Romans, and – because of their strategic importance – were for centuries battled over in to-and-fro tussles between Ottoman and Western European powers.The islands are arid and low-lying, with the highest point being only 13 metres above sea level. Around 14,400 people live on the Kerkennahs, which have a subsistence economy focused mainly on fishing.Some 2,000 fishing boats work out of the islands, most operating on a small scale and using age-old methods, such as shallow water fishing cages made with palm fronds.For the past few decades, these traditional fishermen have found their livelihoods threatened by bottom trawling — the dragging of large nets along the seafloor. This fishing method not only dramatically reduces stocks, but uproots plants on the seafloor, destroying breeding grounds and leading to coastal erosion.Bottom trawling equipment often catches up conventional nets, and tows them far away from where they were set by their original owners. Laws banning bottom trawling in the area are openly flouted. According to some estimates, the local fishermen’s catch on the Kerkennahs has dropped by 50 percent in recent years.In post-revolutionary Tunisia, bottom trawling has increased tremendously, due in part to corruption and to the weakening of authority in a complicated political and social setting. This has dramatically impacted the livelihood of Kerkennian fishermen. Laws against bottom trawling have been in place since the 1990s, but there seems little ability (or even will) to enforce them.Take, for example, the Coast Guard station in the port of Kraten, in the north of the archipelago. The station was burned down during the 2010/11 uprising, and the authorities have not yet returned to the port. Their absence has given free rein to all manner of unlawful sactivity, such as illegal immigration — and continued bottom trawling.Most local fisherman remain sceptical of other government solutions, such as the throwing into the sea large cubes of concrete with protruding steel rods. They feel that the authorities could act more firmly and effectively.In December 2012, some 800 Kerkennian fishermen, in around 100 traditional fishing boats, sailed out of Kraten towards the Italian island of Lampedusa. They wanted to express their anger at what they saw as the Tunisian government’s inability to fight bottom trawling in their seas, and also to draw the Italian government’s—and international community’s—attention to the fact that what happens in Kerkennian waters impacts the entire Mediterranean ecosystem.They were forced to turn back before reaching international waters, but succeeded in making the statement that they no longer felt welcome in a country that had failed to protect their vital resources. National media immediately covered the event, and the government promised concrete action, and indeed passed new legislation against bottom trawling in January 2013. But, a few months later, it seemed to the fishermen that nothing had changed and the issue had been forgotten.In Kraten, and in other Kerkennian villages, fishermen continue their daily struggle in a harsh natural, economic, and political environment. The younger generation talks constantly about how plentiful the seas were in their fathers’ and grandfathers’ time. But they are convinced there will be no fish left in a few years, and think they will not grow old working the sea.Soussi’s father is from the Kerkennah Islands, off the Tunisian coast. Souissi first became interested in photography in the US, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international finance and a master’s in philosophy. After briefly working in IT, he decided to pursue photography professionally in 2007. He is now based in Tunis and works in different parts of the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.