The country of Somalia, which boasts the longest ocean coastline in Africa, is home to pirates that turn the Indian Ocean into a nightmare for sailors.
Somalia, which has been racked by a civil war for nearly half a century, is also now seeing its territorial waters invaded by foreign fishing boats. In fact, some allege that nations like Japan and Korea are scooping up around $300 million worth of fish annually off the Somali coastline. But it is not just these nations that threaten the integrity of the Somali coastline; in the meantime, poisonous waste from European ships is being emptied out near the coastline, presenting one of the most serious problems faced by the country. In fact, this is a situation which was confirmed by a United Nations report in 2005.
Not wanting to lose some of their most precious sources of income to foreign countries, Somali fishermen have wound up forming militias to guard their coastline. There being no central government in Somalia, however, these militias have often turned into pirate groups that take boats and people hostage. Some say ransom earnings from these ventures can be as much as $100 million annually. The militias view this money as simply a way of gaining returns on that which has already been stolen from them.
In the meantime, the profession of fishing, the real job of most of these pirates, has hit rock bottom in Somalia. The fishing for large catch such as sharks, swordfish and mackerel tuna, which used to be done by large fishing boats, is now done from four-meter dinghies. And while Somalia years ago used to export some of its fish to European countries, it now has difficulties just catching enough fish to meet its own internal needs.
The fishing boats which head out into the waters of the Indian Ocean from the Somali capital of Mogadishu every morning now have to do battle against not only the angry waves of the ocean but also fishing boats from foreign countries which are equipped with every technological aid imaginable.
At the end of the day, these boats head back to port and unload their day's catches. And the smaller fish are all consumed by the people of Somalia. As for the larger catch, they are packaged up and marked for export. Local fishermen making their living in Somalia can expect to earn the equivalent of around $5 a day for their work. They long for the old days, when fishing conditions were better and making a living was easier, and they hold onto hopes that maybe someday everything will be better in Somalia.
