READ: "AL-Charfia: Tunisia’s Heritage-Based Fishing Between Tradition and Modernity " (Mohamed Ben Fredj)

AL-Charfia: Tunisia’s Heritage-Based Fishing Between Tradition and Modernity

In the Kerkennah Islands, life revolves in the orbit of fishing, which is more than just an economic activity; it is rather the backbone of the six-island archipelago, which spans a 100-km coast. A ferry connects Kekennah to Sfax, Tunisia's nearest mainland city and economic capital, making its journey twelve times a day.

To the archipelago’s natives, fishing regulates the pace of life. It demarcates the start and end of their seasons, drives their activities, and organizes their social functions. Depending on the yield, it gives them a reason to celebrate or mourn.

Jamal is a proud Tunisian fisherman, originally from Kerkennah’s main island, where he was born in 1970 and raised well into adulthood. Since his most tender moments, he felt attached to the sea and his heritage. In his family, the love of the sea and fishing is passed down from generation to generation.

Jamal’s late father was also a fisherman, as was his grandfather. He used the Al-Chrafi to fish coastally and later deep-sea fishing in his small boat. He recalls his father waking up at dawn and sailing before sunrise. By midday, he took his daily catch to Sfax, sold it, and used his earnings to bring home the necessities that afternoon. This dedication endowed him at a young age with an unmatched respect for the profession.

Jamal started fishing during high school summers as a hobby, then eventually became a fisherman after leaving school, engaging in coastal and deep-sea fishing. As he gained more fishing experience, his relationship with the sea grew stronger. To him, it symbolizes freedom and encompasses his social life. “It’s more than just a source of income; it’s a way of life,” he says. 

M: You mentioned that your father used Al-Charfia. How are Al-Chrafi made and used in fishing?

J: Al-Charfia[1] is one of the best fishing methods and yields the highest quality catch for many reasons. First, the Charifia-caught fish enters Al-Drina purely because of the ocean’s push and pull without any cuts, pressure, or friction against fishing rods or nets.

As scientifically proven, when fish get caught through high-stress fishing methods (trawlers, hooks, or nets), they release an acid that significantly lowers their nutritional value and overall quality.

M: What are the primary materials used in making Al-Chrafi traps?

J: When I was growing up, we sourced 90% of the materials we used in making Al-Chrafi from palm trees. We used the palm fronds (leaflets) to create the Charfia’s walls, called Rjel. We geometrically design each Charfia in a set of 85° angles following the direction of the water flow, whose push motion orients fish toward along these walls and into the last tub where we set traps.

To create this mechanism, we cut and clean the palm fronds, remove their stems, and plant them perpendicularly in the sand, one into the other, to prevent fish from escaping between the leaflets. The walls lead into Al-Dar, which only opens to let fish in but never out, where they eventually swim into the traps. [2]

M: Does each family own its proper Charfia?

J: Almost every family did, especially the families native to Kerkennah. These families were the only ones allowed by the state to own particular coastal areas. Before GPS, they’d locate where each family’s Charfia starts and ends through consensus. The state officially recognizes this ownership, and the deeds are passed down from generation to generation.

M: Do the fishermen in Kerkennah still use Al-Charfia, or did new and advanced methods push it out of practice?

J: Growing up, Al-Charfia was the most dominant fishing method, and it remains widely used because of its cultural value and excellent yield. However, many new techniques, notably Al-Ghzal, have impeded its use nowadays. Fishermen would surround Al-Charfia with Al-Ghzal, which targets the same fish families, most commonly sea breams.[3] Then, they would sell those fish within the same market at lower prices, which drives Al-Charfia fishermen out of competition.

M: How are Karkennah’s Al-Charfia fishermen adapting to this highly competitive market, if at all?

J: The fishermen now use new and advanced resources to make their Chrafi. We used to rely solely on natural resources: the palm tree’s fronds for the Charfia’s walls, as previously mentioned, and its cripples to weave Al-Drina and the subsequent baskets where the fish get trapped. Even the cords used to fasten together all of these components are dried dandelion stems frotted together into rope.

Nowadays, fishermen use synthetic rope and pre-made plastic walls tailored to different sizes and shapes. What was a long, sturdy branch upon which the Charfia’s walls rested is now a fabricated plastic pole. All of these materials are readily available in hardware stores. However, the logic and technique used in Al-Charfia fishing remained the same despite the new materials.[4]

On the 15th of September, 2023, a stand-off between maritime guards and fishing trawlers took the Tunisian news cycle by storm. Life halted entirely in the archipelago on the first day of the new academic semester. The buses intended to transport students to schools got stuck in Sfax’s auto repair shop. Resident doctors in Kerkennah’s only hospital failed to join their rotations and rescheduled some urgent operations. Such debilitating crises have become a common occurrence as the tension between the state and fishermen rises. 

M: Do climate change and unregulated fishing practices impact Al-Charfia fishing the same as other techniques?

J: Absolutely; climate change has negatively impacted Al-Charfia’s yield since we’ve witnessed it thinning year after year. Fishing trawlers also irreversibly damage the seabed where Al-Torga[5], Al-Charfia’s targeted fish, lives. It also tears out the seaweed and algae it feeds on, which affects the overall fishing wealth. It sometimes even destroys generations of nested fish eggs, which generally hinders the renewability of maritime wealth.

The Gabes Gulf is known for providing one of the Mediterranean's primary maritime resources, especially in the shellfish category. We export our high-quality shrimp to various countries in the EU. In recent years, fishing trawlers and unregulated fishing have significantly damaged the Gulf, impacting our livelihood in the fishing sector and Tunisia’s national economy.

These practices are illegal because they transgress on the low-tide maritime ecology and deep-sea fishing. As deep-sea fishermen, we’re subject to a 3-month biological rest period from July to August to allow the renewal of naval wealth. Trawlers, unfortunately, don’t respect these laws, which harms the entire industry and the environment.

M: As seen on the news, the disagreement between the state and trawlers’ fishermen led to them blocking access to the island. Can you speak to that incident?

J:  Originally, Kerkennah’s fishermen did not possess or use trawlers. However, when fishing trawlers from Sfax invaded the coastal areas where we planted and operated our Charfias, the locals had no choice[6] but to adopt these popular damaging practices to keep up with the competition. Since most of the used equipment is neither licensed nor registered, there is also the added benefit of evading taxes, which lured in growing numbers of local fishermen. [7]

The state has sanctioned licensed boats to install a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) before receiving the official papers allowing them to purchase fuel and operate freely, subject to a fine if illegally removed. Licensed boats are usually allowed to work within a 50-meter depth and exceptionally restricted to 30 meters from mid-May to mid-June before the biological break. Unsanctioned trawlers operate in the same areas using advanced equipment to reach a 60-meter depth, impeding state-licensed deep-sea fishermen’s yield. [8]

M: What do you believe to be the solution to this phenomenon?

J: There isn’t a clear-cut solution. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries needs to release stricter circulars, especially considering the growing number of unlicensed trawlers that have reached the thousands. When maritime guards want to impose order, clashes erupt. Trawlers are in wide circulation because they’re unsupervised and provide a profitable, easy yield. Thus, fishermen prioritize personal gain over the common good. It’s then up to the state to alleviate the restrictions and taxes imposed on licensed small fishing boats and to encourage a return to heritage-based fishing methods like Al-Charfia, which are ecological, honor our ancestry, and ensure equitable access to maritime wealth.

 Reflections:

The Charfia case stands as a legal exception to maritime ownership models and offers an indigenous alternative to traditional academic frameworks of the sea. In her academic paper “Ocean Floor Grab: International Law and the Making of an Extractive Imaginary,” Surabhi Ranganathan argues for a critical recognition of the law of the sea as a post-war period facilitator for a ‘grab’ of the ocean floor. In the closing reflections of her analysis, Ranganathan poses the open query of “Can the law, as the medium, that facilitated the grab of the ocean floor, in fact, also serve as the medium that returns it to the common benefit?” (2019, p.19). In the Charfia case, the law made pre-existing consociational agreements over private ownership of the coast within the native Karkennah community legally binding. These laws protected the public good and ensured an equitable distribution of resources. It also respected the coast’s ecological limitations, allowing it to regenerate for the collective benefit of the inhabitants.

The existence of heritage fishing methods in Kerkennah and trade practices between the archipelago predate the state modern Tunisian state, which was established after its independence from France in 1956 by many decades. To that extent, indigenous fishing practices represent a counter-narrative to dominant classifications of the international systems’ actors. According to Alejandro Colas (2016), the British school derives the state as the center of the international society and the driving factor behind the development of public international law. In Kerkennah’s case, the indigenous community efficiently regulated its exploitation of maritime resources. It maintained primitive trade agreements between the archipelago and the mainland before a centralized Tunisian state existed.

 References:

Campling, L., & Colás, A. (2018). Capitalism and the sea: Sovereignty, territory and appropriation in the global ocean. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 36(4), 776-794. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775817737319

Colás, A. (2016). Barbary Coast in the expansion of international society: Piracy, privateering, and corsairing as primary institutions. Review of International Studies, 42(5), 840–857. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0260210516000152

Kerkennah Islands Charfia and Traditional Fishing - Presìdi Slow Food. (n.d.). Slow Food Foundation. Retrieved December 14, 2023, from https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/slow-food-presidia/presidio-sui-metodi-tradizionali-di-pesca-delle-isole-kerkennah/

M’charek, A. (2020). Harraga: Burning borders, navigating colonialism. The Sociological Review, 68(2), 418–434. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120905491

Ranganathan, S. (2019). Ocean Floor Grab: International Law and the Making of an Extractive Imaginary. European Journal of International Law, 30(2), 573–600. https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chz027

UNESCO - Charfia fishing in the Kerkennah Islands. (n.d.). Ich.unesco.org. Retrieved December 14, 2023, from https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/charfia-fishing-in-the-kerkennah-islands-01566?RL=01566

[1] Al Charfia got its name after Al-Charif family, who were the first to register their ownership in a legally-binding deed 

[2] The making of Charfias is a ritualistic process that forms an identity-based community linked to Tunisian heritage. 

[3] The specie’s scientific name is Sparus Aurata.

[4] Al-Drina = the last trap in a set of 3 to 5 within each Charfia.

 Rjel = “foot” or steady beam in this context.

[5] Al-Torga A fisherman's expression referring to grey mullet or the bluefin tuna. Al-Torga, borrowed from the Italian word "Bottarga" is a delicacy of salted, cured fish roe pouch.

[6] The exploitation of maritime resources has turned into a capitalist competition, fueled technological advancement and the fear of scarcity.

[7] Recommendation No. 5/2018/42 issued by the General Commission for Fisheries in the Mediterranean prohibits trawling on the seabed between the shore and the 200-meter depth line in the Gulf of Gabes between July and September of each year

[8] Fish trawling is prohibited in Tunisia under the jurisdiction of the 1998 agricultural ministerial order, article 15.