With a swift movement, Bakari lifts himself onto the small communal fishing boat and is helped by Seif to pull the fishing basket out of the water. “This spot is better,” Bakari says as he empties the basket onto the floor of boat. A medium-sized snapper flaps around in the middle of other smaller fish. This is the third basket out of five that the four fishermen from Chale are retrieving this morning. The first two baskets came up with hardly any fish, just a handful of the rabbitfish and parrotfish that are common in shallow waters.

Catch of the day: a snapper, considered Grade A fish, caught together with rabbitfish and zebrafish which is considered Grade B and C fish, respectively (17 October 2021).

The generally low yield has been a regular dilemma facing this simple fishing community.  “I remember ten years ago, the water would be full of sardines. We could not believe our eyes. We would bring so many buckets full of sardines back to the village to dry, sell and use for cooking. These days, there are no sardines,” Seif says.

Fisherman Seif Hamadi (40 years) walks towards the communal fishing boat in Chale as other community members collect sea grass to use as bait (October 17, 2021)

Kenya’s coastline covers 640 kilometres overlooking the Western Indian Ocean. It is a strategic lifeline for the country’s small fishing communities that reside along the coast and practice small-scale fishing for their livelihoods. In 2015, the World Bank estimated that around 27,000 people were employed by the fisheries sector, including 13,000 artisanal fishers. The sector further supports a much higher number of individuals who indirectly benefit from it, such as traders, and input suppliers.

Chale village, Seif’s home, is nestled in land planted with mango, baobab, papaya and other trees. Baboons roam under the trees and between the simple homes in search of food. From the village, home to approximately 2,000 inhabitants, it is a fifteen-minute walk to Chale Beach, where Seif teams up with Mohammed and Bakari on an early Sunday morning to go out on their daily fishing journey. The tide usually dictates what type of fishing they will be doing and it is a good day for basket fishing. Baskets are filled with sea grass and left overnight in different spots around the shallow waters off the beach. According to Seif, more than 50 fishermen operate from the communal land at Chale Beach.

Seif and Bakari pull out a basket to retrieve the catch (October 17, 2021).

Dripping with sweat from the heat of the rising morning sun, Seif explains that fish prices vary according to a grading system that is used in the market. Grades A to C cost between US$ 3.00 to USD 1.80 per kilogramme of fish, respectively. The higher the grade, the higher the selling price. On that particular day, with the exception of one snapper, all the fish caught in the shallow waters using the basket fishing method fall in the lower category of prices, generating a limited profit for the most hardworking individuals along the value chain.

The Kenyan government recognises the strategic value of the country’s marine life. Dubbed the Blue Economy, the government has prioritised the sector as a key component of its 2030 development agenda. In 2018, reports estimated that the annual economic value of goods and services in Kenya’s blue economy could be worth approximately US$4.4 billion, beating the tourism sector share by more than US$1.4 billion.

Rabbitfish weighed for sale at the small local communal market on Chale beach (October 16, 2021).

Artisanal fishing like that practiced in Chale makes up the majority of marine fisheries in Kenya. It is estimated that approximately 80 per cent of all marine products come from coastal waters and reefs, while 20 per cent is from offshore fishing. In 2016, the World Bank estimated that artisanal marine fisheries production stood at about 24,000 metric tonnes. Total fish production in Kenya (including inland capture, marine capture, and aquaculture) amounted to about 150,000 metric tonnes with a market value of about US$240,000 million. The contribution of the fisheries sector to the national economy is much larger when the full value chain is considered.

Bakari returns to the boat after a quick dive to drop a basket in a specific spot on the ocean floor (October 17, 2021).

However, weak governance has led to overexploitation and degradation of near-shore fisheries. “Our government officials are corrupt. They allow Tanzanian fishermen to come into our waters and fish using nets that catch even small fish! There is no fish anymore for us to catch because of this corruption!” exclaims Seif.

Seif makes his way back to Chale village with a bucket of fish for him and his family (October 17, 2021).

His observations are confirmed by reports from national and international organisations. A 2018 report by the Kenya Fisheries and Maritime Institute states that most commercial species are on the decline in the Kenyan waters. A media report released in May 2021 describes how increased cheap imports from China, overfishing in shallow waters and the lack of sophisticated tools that would enable fishermen to venture into deep water fishing, are affecting small fishing communities along the Kenyan coast. Unemployment, the lack of alternative livelihoods and open access to shoreline fishing are further exacerbating the problem.

The hardship experienced by the Chale fishing community is pushing community members to find other means of generating income. “Our elders are selling parts of their ancestral lands because they need money. Those lands you see that are fenced are sold, mostly to rich politicians,” Seif explains. Chale is representative of similar neighbouring coastal communities.

One of the regular wholesale buyers chooses her catch at the local beach communal market in Chale (October 16, 2021).

Although the Kenyan government introduced plans to manage artisanal fishing in order to address the problem of dwindling fish stocks, compliance with such measures from small fishers remains limited as they depend on the sector for their livelihoods. In effect, while the management of fisheries has been decentralised to Beach Management Units within the coastal communities, and even though villages like Chale have a communal management structure, they do not always comply with the established management plans meant to preserve fish reserves and support livelihoods into the future. Being some of the poorest communities in Kenya, artisanal fishers in villages along the coast instead focus on daily subsistence.

Hundreds of thousands of lives are threatened by the changing waters of the Indian Ocean. But despite the grim reality, Seif and his fellow fishers will continue to do what they learned from their elders in order to put food on the table: go out and fish.