Ayman Fadilat-Aqaba

After a break that lasted about a month, the fisherman Badr Yassin returned to his sea and fish. He inspected the boat and the engine, and he carried with him all kinds of nets (scarf, shah and generosity), which helped him to spend a hard day at sea, and a refrigerator to preserve yields.

He leaves his home at dawn, equipped with baits and hooks, moving his boat between the shores of the Aqaba Sea, looking for fish and abundant yields, taking advantage of the permitted fishing hours before the curfew was announced at six in the evening.

"The decision of the fishermen to return to work and ease the curfew procedures saved us from deserting the sea," Yassin told Al Jazeera Net. "I grew up at sea and started fishing early, and it is my source of income and my family from which we live."

The Jordanian authorities announced the easing of the embargo procedures for the Aqaba governorate recently, and allowed fishermen to carry out their work within health conditions, and they directed 120 fishermen for their work, who hold licenses to do so.

The fisherman Bader Yassin (left) and his assistant in their boat heading for fishing in the Gulf of Aqaba (Al-Jazeera)

The concerns of the fisherman
During the Al-Jazeera Net tour on the beach of the fishermen, the fishermen gathered to complain about their concerns and problems; the sea is narrow, the fishing areas are few and the prohibitions expand at the expense of the fishermen.

Fifty-year-old fisherman Maher Hariz spent two-thirds of his life in hunting, and he tells Al-Jazeera Net that the area where the hunter is allowed to move is narrow, coral areas and environmental reserves, border areas, shallow southern waters beside abundant ports, beaches of hotels and tourist investments are all forbidden to fish by, remaining about 17 km There are 170 fishermen licensed with their boats.

Despite this, fishermen overcome their problems and extract from the sea various types of fish, which vary according to the season. During the first days of fishing, the fishermen recovered about four tons, twice the amount extracted in the remaining days.

A fisherman cleans his fish in the city of Aqaba, the central fishermen's beach in southern Jordan (Al-Jazeera)

Shawar and Skh
Yasin is used for fishing with hooks and string by baits, as well as Shawar, which is a net thirty meters in length and two meters in width, and at the end of it are pieces of lead that help it to go down into the water, and at the other end are pieces of cork, including what is used to catch small fish, and the other For large fish.

There are other nets known to the fishermen as "lofts", which take a circular shape and are used for fishing near the shore.

As for the generosity, it is a cage of iron mesh with an opening that extends inward, its size is one meter in width and one meter in length, and half a meter in height, and it is a trap for large fish at the bottom of the water, and it is placed with a special taste, and it descends to the sea floor by stone weights.

A fisherman reviews a species of fish (Al-Jazeera)

Fishing, tourism and industry
the total area of ​​the Aqaba Sea extends to 27 kilometers, divided between the tourist establishments, industries sectors, and fishing areas, which is the largest and covers an area of ​​17 kilometers, "says the Commissioner of Environment in Aqaba, Suleiman Al-Najadat, to Al Jazeera Net.

Al-Najadat continues that work is underway to complete the construction and equipping of a special basin for fishermen in the central beach area, and includes a market for displaying, selling and preserving fresh fish, a marina for boats and workshops for their maintenance, and places to sell fishing gear, to form a prominent tourist attraction in Aqaba.

And the Aqaba Sea - despite its small size - is diversified in its activities, there are tourism investments for international hotels, and it includes thirty sites for water sports and diving, environmental reserves to protect coral and diverse marine life, ports for passengers, containers and goods, oil and gas, public beaches for picnics, and parks for children on the sea side.

A fisherman accompanied by his son heading towards the sea to hunt (Al-Jazeera)

Al-Sayadiyah, Al-Tatur,
and on the shores of the beach, fish dealers and restaurant owners collect the fish stored in fishermen's refrigerators, and they buy it at a price that they set among themselves in advance.  

After that, fresh fish head towards the display stands that are frozen in front of customers in the fish markets, including quantities for restaurants that prepare dishes that are popular with the people of Aqaba, such as Al-Sayadiah, Al-Tartour, Kushna and Tajin, in addition to fish trays fried with oil, or roasted in ovens, or prepared on charcoal.

A fisherman returning from the sea arranges his fish for sale (Al-Jazeera)

Al-Sayadiyah equipped with fresh fish and rice dominates the Akabawiyin table, cooks fish with onions, peppers and their spices, then goes out, prepares rice with fish broth, and offers a rice dish decorated with fish cooked with its appetizers.

As for the famous herbal kechna food, it is prepared by frying fish with onions in oil, adding tomatoes, peppers and spices, and eaten with peppered rice.