jelera - bengal's fishermen
For thousands of years, the people of the Ganges delta have been fishing in the Bay of Bengal. Fish is one of the most essential staple foods in this region, and a whole nation describes itself with the proverb Rice and Fish, that’s Bangladesh. Over the centuries, little has changed in the lives of the fishermen – and if it wasn’t for the small but loud diesel engines in their boats, you could indeed feel like being somewhere in the past. Still there are only few big trawlers or even harbours – the fisher boats are being pulled up on the beach by hand every day.
Other changes, however, badly afflict the fishermen and their villages. Due to climate change, cyclones are coming up more frequently and fiercely, devastating the coastal area and destroying the fishermen’s houses, boats and nets. The last one, Sidr, hit the coast of Bangladesh on November 15, 2007, and left a trail of chaos. Thousands died and countless people lost their shelter and their livelihood.
But also overfishing and pollution hamper the fishermen’s life. More and more nets remain empty because of the shrinking populations of big fish. In order to survive, the fishermen go for the young fishes swarming the shallow coastal waters - thus further contributing to the decimation of the fish populations.