4 juni 2011
September, two months ahead before they are allowed to get on the River, but meanwhile, one has to ensure first needs, food and school fees. Nicolas sits in front of his hut, staring around. Two months of waiting to be allowed to go fishing on the Pendjari River, whilst on the water pounds in the park there’s so many fish. It's not that hard to get there, ’cause the park resembles an ocean with here and there an island of luxurious green… and he is the owner of a canoe... so what's the problem? The pounds lie in the park... and fishing is prohibited. But who’ll see it? The park rangers can’t get there with their four-wheel drives, and with a motor boat, we hear them from far away. Besides, Nicolas is thinking, I’ll go there after sunset to plant my nets… and in the morning, before sunrise, I'll be in bed.
March, the fishing season starts at the end of the month. In the fishermen’s’ camp Nicolas looks a little besotted at his catch of the day. This way I’ll never be able to pay off the loan I took with the fish resellers. Scarcely three kilos of fish caught … and so it goes on for quite a while. In earlier days, around this time of the season we were short of hands too short out all off the fish, 10, 20 kilos was the daily ration. The resellers and wholesalers remained only a few days in the camp ... but now they stay here for over two months, to fill up their cooler truck. Fresh fish … if they only knew in Ouagadougou how long these 'fresh' fish already is ashore. Years ago, by New Years day I already refunded the 250.000 Fcfa of loan… now I remain with a huge debt... and for the next year I stay with the promise that I won’t get another loan. Nicolas really hasn’t a clue what to do. Will he cross the River like the others do, get a new license and continue fishing? Because on the other side of the border they have still two months to try to fill their nets.
April, the only canoes on the river, are canoes with tourists. “Where are all those fishermen from the other side of the border?” wonders Nicolas. They are definitely still in the camps, because there are regularly smoke trails above the treetops, so there’s someone to cook or maybe to smoke fish. But one night Nicolas gathers all his courage and goes searching of the ‘ghost’-fishermen... he sees them from afar, on the other side of a pool. They are installing their nets … and early in the morning before the first sunrays lighten up the Savannah ... they are long gone. On the other side of the border… there is no one who asks where that fat oily fish comes from.
May, we can’t go on this way. Nicolas still indebted hears at a meeting with the park management that it would even be better to stop fishing on the Pendjari River for a long while. Scientists calculated that they if they continue fishing to this pace, within one, maximum two years, the entire fish stock will be gone… and they only referred to what they found in the River. They know what is happening on the water pounds? The park management is aware that fish is poached on these pounds, but remain powerless. By the time they finally arrive… the fish poachers already crossed border, where they are not that secure about biodiversity. A fish is a fish, how big or how small, doesn’t matter. And fish, means money, means eating … (at best) school fees for the children. Nicolas never realized where all those fish in the River came from, but here he finally comes to know. The fish reproduce themselves in the water pounds, which during the dry season are no longer connected to the River. So that fish can reproduce themselves quietly and the other can become full-fledged fish. During the rainy season, when the savannah is flooded … and connection between pounds and river restored, a part of that fish can’t resist the call of the Pendjari River and they choose for a life in the River.
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