Al-Raqqa – North-Press Agency
Ahmad Al-Hassan/Abdul-Rahman Al-Jasem
In recent years, the city of Raqqa was marked by a significant decline in the profession of fishing, as several species became extinct due to overfishing and non-adherence to fishing laws.
Fishing is considered one of the oldest professions in Raqqa because of the city’s location on both banks of Euphrates river north-east of Syria.
A big number of citizens in the city and neighboring villages work in fishing, where it supplies them with a good income, it’s also one of the best hobbies for a number of people in the city.
By the evening, Ali Al-Hussein, a local fisherman, heads towards the river and lay his net in places where fish are lot, to come back at dawn collecting what he had fished and to sell them in the bazaar, Al-Hussein told North-Press that the quantities of fish distributed between the need of the city of Raqqa and for export to other places in north and east of Syria.
Many fish species exist in the Euphrates, which is famous for its meat such as carp, eel, barbus, catfish and other species. However, recent years witnessed a decline in fish species, where Al-Hussein said: “Many fish species became extinct and the most existing species now are the barbus and tilapia”.
Overfishing
The decline in the number of fishes in the Euphrates goes back to overfishing and non-adherence to fishing laws, some people tend to fish by hand-made explosives, by electricity or by poison, where it leads to the death of all organisms in the fishing area.
Nevertheless, fishermen face other obstacles that pushed many of them to look for other job opportunities. Muhammad Al-Omar, a fisherman explained the situation by saying: “We pay about $30 to the Agricultural Committee for a work permit, but they don’t provide us with any assistance or protect, where most of the time we are subjected to random fire shots by unidentified gunmen in order to prevent us from fishing in breeding areas of fish”.
High costs, low prices
The low price of fish is one of the important factors of the decline of fishing profession, Ahmad Al-Issa, a fish store owner said: “We buy most of the fish species from fishermen with varying prices from SYP 200 to 500 per kilogram, according to the species and its size”.
High temperatures and electricity cut off increase the fish preserving prices, which led to the close of many fish stores.
“We buy 25 ice cubes every day, as well as paying for 25 amperes of electricity in order to be able to operate the fridges for preserving the fish,” Al-Issa added.
He also confirmed that “most of the fish sellers in Raqqa do not buy fish caught by explosives, the thing that leads the fishermen to sell them in other regions”.
Formal procedures
For her part, Khadija Al-Abdullah from livestock department in Agricultural Committee in the city of Raqqa, talked about the facilitation and future plans to support the process of fishing and preserving it saying: “We have issued 69 fishing permissions to the fishermen of the Euphrates river under the conditions set by the Agricultural Committee of SYP 5000 fee per year, a syndicate for fishermen was formed in order to receive their complaints, and to coordinate fishing process among them, along with the formation of river police to charge the violators”, Al-Abdullah added.
“Fishing is forbidden during the time of breeding, from March 15 to June 1st every year, in order to preserve fish wealth and secure its breeding,” Al-Abdullah said.
The Euphrates River passes through the city of Raqqa, as it considered a source of living for many people in the city and its countryside whether by fishing in the river or by establishing touristic facilities along the banks of the River.
The Euphrates is the longest river in southwest Asia, and it’s one of the two main constituents of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, the river rises in Turkey and flows southeast across Syria and through Iraq to join the Tigris in Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf.
The Islamic State group took control the city of Raqqa and imposed its brutal rule, after which they declared it as the de facto capital of their caliphate, where fierce battles took place at the eastern bank of the Euphrates, which led to heavy damage to major parts of the city, including the destruction of the main bridge on the river.