Coastal foraging and fishing are the foremost traditional activities people do on the coasts of Zanzibar. These activities are not restricted to this island or country but everywhere worldwide with a suitable coast. In English, coastal foragers are also called seashore harvesters, tidewater gatherers, beachcombers, intertidal collectors, or strandloopers.
Fishing and gathering provide nutrition through animal proteins and oils. They also offer employment, which constitutes a key source of income for these people living on meager terms. As the fleshy part of gastropods and bivalves is eaten, the cleaned shells are often sold to middlemen, who sell them to tourists as curios. Although it is not forbidden in Tanzania to sell and buy these shells, it is forbidden to export them. When leaving Zanzibar by plane, tourists often face unethical behavior from security personnel. These persons look specifically for shells in the luggage and offer two blind eyes for cash handed over in the washing room. Better leave the shells where they belong – in Zanzibar.
Both men and women on the Zanzibar coast work as coastal foragers, but they generally use different techniques and primarily target different animals. In the following, we will discuss these different types of foragers.
Types of coastal foragers at Zanzibar
Male skin divers
Male skin divers use masks, snorkels, and fins to catch animals in deeper water inaccessible to women. Their weapons are spears, spear guns, and wooden or metal sticks. Primary targets to catch are octopuses, crabs, lobsters, rays, and eels. Large mollusks are also collected, although they are only a by-catch.
Working pattern of coastal foragers
These foragers work at daylight and low tide inside the reef. They call the low tides ‘morning water,’ ‘noon water,’ and ‘evening water’; each denominates the general times when the tide is lowest during daylight hours. Each of these periods lasts five days. The skin divers work 10 days during morning and noon waters and will rest for five days in evening waters. This cycle repeats itself and is driven by the two spring tides each month, generated by the New- and Full moon. On rainy days, skin-diving and coastal foraging are considerably less effective due to reduced visibility in the water.
Spear fishers often collaborate in small groups and divide their catches equally. However, individual skin divers keep a part of the catch, mainly consisting of crabs and large mollusks. Such individual shares of catches contain about 10 invertebrates (Jiddawi, 2012) ,and serve to feed their families or for sale in cooked form on local markets. The most common animals in such a share of the catch are:
- Blue swimming crabs (Portunus segnis and P. pelagicus),
- Flag pen shells (Atrina vexillum),
- Giant spider conchs (Lambis truncata),
- Ramose murex’s (Chicoreus ramosus),
- Tiger cowries (Cypraea tigris),
- Trapezium horse conchs (Pleuroploca trapezium)
Some skin divers also use Ngalawa boats for long lining and gill netting. Besides coastal foraging, many skin divers tend crops or raise domestic animals. Some of them also trade in fish or are gravel makers.
Male coastal foragers
Male coastal foragers use spears or a metal- or wooden stick to catch crabs and octopuses. Besides these, they also collect sea urchins, sea cucumbers, slow fish species, and various mollusks. They forage during the daytime at low tide but only in shallow waters and never dive underwater.
These male coastal foragers also do handline fishing in waist-deep waters or set gill nets for various fish species. During off-times of fishing and foraging, they tend crops and are engaged in animal husbandry.
Female coastal foragers
Like their male counterparts, female coastal foragers do the same as their male counterparts do. However, they will not go into waist-deep water for handline fishing or gill netting. They collect animals in shallow waters with their sticks and spears and collect gastropods during peak hours of low tide. Sometimes, drag nets – made from mosquito nets – are used for beach seining of fish. (Bush et al., 2017) Although strictly forbidden by the government, some persons still do it.
The main catch is gastropods, bivalves, chitons, crabs, octopuses, fish, and occasional sea cucumbers. If bait is needed for Dema fish traps, they also collect brittle stars within seaweed.
A marked difference between female coastal foragers and males is that considerably more females beach-comb than males. And that schoolchildren during their off-school-times also collect organisms in the lagoons, as females do. Most of the food collected is used for the family’s subsistence and not primarily to generate cash by selling the collected seafood. However, if beautiful shells or large opercula are found, they will be sold to traders in the village. The same goes for sea cucumbers, which will be dried and always sold to local traders for international export.
Besides foraging, these females often combine this work with other livelihood activities, like seaweed farming or tending crops. Some even bury coconut husks to free the fibers for making ropes, generating cash for their families.
Female seafood traders
Female traders are often the same ladies as female coastal foragers. They are doing the same foraging activities in the lagoons, but their goal is to catch fish, crabs, octopuses, and mollusks for income. After catching the animals or buying them from other ladies, they cook and turn them into a seafood meal. These meals, which can be soups, salads, fried chunks, or others, are sold either in food retail or on local markets. They seldom sell the creatures raw, as value creation is, in this case, considerably lower. Besides these activities, they often work in seaweed farming, gravel making, in fish retail, or petty trade.
Lessons learned about coastal foraging in Zanzibar:
- Coastal foraging is done for subsistence and cash income.
- Males and females use different techniques and target different main species for collection.
- Besides foraging, men often do skin diving with spears, handline-, and gill net fishing.
- Common coastal foraging tools are spears and wooden- and metal sticks for both genders.
- Due to the changing tidal situations, foraging is only suitable for two-thirds of a month.
- Rainy days are less suitable for coastal foraging due to reduced visibility.
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