Lebanese youths take up rods and reels to learn sustainable fishing

AMCHIT, Lebanon — Amchit’s harbor bustles with activity on a sunny January morning, one of the first in more than three weeks. A group of 16 youths from the coastal village of Bnine, in Akkar district, one of Lebanon’s poorest regions, gathers at the docks, where a long wooden boat is tied up. Divided into two groups, one prepares to set sail, the other to learn the art of knot-tying.

The first group, smiling and singing, rushes to the boat, unable to hide their excitement. Captain Jeannot, otherwise known as Jean Saad, welcomes the youths, led by fisher Solange Sfeir, on board the Coco. Greeting them warmly, Sfeir hands each trainee a fishing rod, a large black bucket, and a hat to prevent sunstroke. Sitting on two benches, the young men and women observe all Sfeir’s movements and listen carefully to their trainer for the day.

The fisher holds a disassembled fishing rod. “What is the name of this part?” she asks. “Reel!” the group answers enthusiastically. She smiles, pleased by how well her students remember their lessons from the two-day classroom session they’ve already done.

In it, these young people learned about the sea, the species of fish and their sizes, the fishing seasons, and everything else a fisher should know. Today, they will put this into practice: learning how to fish at sea and tie knots the correct way.

This training is part of a program created by the Lebanese NGO Friends of Nature that aims to train 300 youths across Lebanon in sustainable fishing. Since 2019, the Lebanese economy has crashed, with inflation reaching around 200% in 2023 and the Lebanese lira losing almost 100% of its value. The country’s fish stocks are overexploited, and destructive techniques are rampant among the aging fishing workforce. The idea behind the training program is to help infuse new life into the country’s fisheries and offer youth alternative ways to connect with the sea, whether they keep fishing recreationally or make a living from it.

“We have been working on the marine biodiversity and the coastal protection for years,” says Myrna Semaan, Friends of Nature’s general secretary and an ecologist. “But with the economic crisis, we thought of how people could benefit from the sea, as our ancestors did … With this program, we want to create a model of a citizen who is aware of the sea and who wants to benefit from it within the natural ecological limits.”

Fisheries losing young people

According to a 2021 brief from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Lebanon’s 220-kilometer-long (137-mile) coast “hosts 44 fishing ports and landing sites that harbor around 3,000 all-artisanal, small-scale fishing vessels. The fisheries of Lebanon are traditionally based on trammel nets, longlines and purse seine nets that capture roughly 3,000-3,500 tons annually.” More than 4,000 families in Lebanon rely on fisheries for their livelihood, according to a 2023 U.N. Development Programme press release.

The FAO brief notes that the majority of the fishing nets in use have a small mesh, less than the legal minimum size of 2 centimeters (about three-quarters of an inch) across, which leads to the capture of immature fish before they’ve had a chance to reproduce. And that’s not the only problematic practice Lebanese fishers openly use.

“It’s a small-scale fishery, so it should be more sustainable,” says Sharif Jemaa, a fish biologist and ecologist at Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research. “On the other hand, Lebanese fishery is affected by illegal fishing practices like dynamite, distances from the coast not respected, equipment … Fishermen do not respect the sizes of the fish.”

Moreover, the artisanal fleet fishes mainly within 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) of the coast due to “its questionable navigation and safety capabilities,” which adds pressure to coastal fish stocks, biodiversity and the environment, according to the FAO brief. “The present inappropriate conditions of the sector make work in fisheries not appealing to the young generation (average age of skippers is 51 years) that risks losing the traditional fishing as a way of life,” it states.

Using fishing rods, bait and minds

In Amchit, Captain Jeannot starts the boat engine and slowly maneuvers under the supervision of the larger-than-life Virgin Mary watching over the mouth of Amchit harbor. Sfeir finishes giving instructions and materials to the trainees. After a few minutes, the Coco reaches the first fishing spot. Carefully, the young men and women start casting. “If they start the right way and they understand the spirit of fishing and the patience it requires, it might change,” Sfeir says, referring to current Lebanese fishing practices.

After the weeks of bad weather and storms, the sea is calm. So are the fish. The group learns a little bit more about the word patience. “Usually, there is more activity around here. But now, I think between the weather, the storm we had, and also climate change, we don’t have any normal conditions,” says Sfeir, who has been fishing recreationally for more than 30 years.

From time to time, fishing rods bend, but what they pull up is mostly puffer fish, an invasive species in the Mediterranean that’s harmful to marine life and poisonous to humans. Sfeir flashes a yellow card every time a participant lets their fishing line tangle, drops the rod on the deck, or otherwise fails to follow the rules. The third time, it’s a red card. “It can break the fishing rod,” Sfeir says. “Giving them a red card it’s like a penalty … But in a nice way. But for them, they will never forget about the mistake they did.”

Fishing as another opportunity

This is the first time Ossam Bassam, 20, has fished from a boat. He usually fishes from shore with his friends, just for fun. He says he’s witnessed a lot of fishers using dynamite and nets that catch juvenile fish. “We could use the fishing industry to improve our country, but we need better practices, so I’m glad I’m learning this,” Bassam says, a little bit disappointed, though, at not having caught anything yet today.

Finally, the fishing team motors out to one last spot, a little farther from shore. This last stop is the busiest one. After almost two hours at sea, each trainee catches at least one fish to put in their bucket. The sun is high in the sky and it’s time to head back to the harbor. On the way, Sfeir asks her trainees to measure their catch.

A large smile lights up Rima Mahmoud Aid’s face. For the unemployed 28-year-old, whose family relied on fishing for generations, the experience offers hope for a more sustainable future. “I want my family to benefit from what I know now and to see if there are other opportunities for me in fishing,” says the trainee, who adds that she now feels confident to accompany her father when he goes out fishing.

Friends of Nature’s isn’t the only initiative working against these challenges. Jemaa also runs workshops encouraging Lebanese fishers to adopt more sustainable practices and equipment, like Spanish traps. “Since the COVID and because of the economic crisis, the illegal fishing practices have increased. People go out to fish because they need to survive … But the ministry needs to enforce the law,” says Jemaa, who is currently studying the impacts of the economic crisis on Lebanon’s fishing sector.

Others try to do their parts as well, like free-diving instructor Ibrahim Chahloub. “It’s important to have a nucleus of young people who will be able to change the way things are,” says Chahloub, president of an association called Water People, who also organizes awareness-raising sessions about the marine environment. “With a fishing rod, we can have 5 million fishermen in Lebanon; it’s still a lot of work and patience so it won’t cause any harm.”

For now, Bassam, Rima and the rest of the group got to know the basics. But there’s more to come: after one more training day on shore, each participant will receive a basic fishing rod so they can take what they’ve learned and go out fishing on their own.

Banner image: Trainee Ossam Bassam fishing at sea for the first time. Image by Amélie David for Mongabay.

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