Residents of Tripoli’s seafront wake up most weekends to loud blasts: fishermen using dynamite to maximise their catch, regardless of the damage they are causing to marine life.
Dynamite fishing, or “blast fishing”, has flourished — with impunity — since Libya’s 2011 uprising that left the country awash with weapons and explosives.
Haytham Ali, a newly-married teacher, lives less than 50 metres from the beach in the capital’s residential suburb of Hay al-Andalous. “My wife and I enjoy the peace and quiet of Friday mornings in our garden by the sea, but the explosions... as early as 7 am remind us of all that is wrong in this country,” he said.
Mariam, a 64-year-old widow, said the blasts frighten her grandchildren when they come to visit her home near the water.
“My whole house and my old windows shake with every blast... and I have to reassure my grandchildren that it’s only people fishing, not NATO bombs all over again,” she said, referring to the uprising that was backed by the Western alliance.
Even anonymous videos are posted online of sea water being propelled high into the sky and dozens of dazed or dead fish left behind on the surface.
Some marine biologists, fishermen and fishmongers, and even religious leaders have tried to speak out against blast fishing but to no avail.
Using dynamite to catch fish “depletes the fish stock in the sea”, said Mokhtar, a fishmonger in central Tripoli, who declined to give his surname.
