By contributor Sean Carey
Sit on a beach in Mauritius and face the lagoon on a sunny day when the tide is out. Chances are you will see several young Creole men with harpoons or spears walking near the reef in search of fish of one sort or another.
Most of what they catch is eaten by their families, although they may sell some to hotels and restaurants in the vicinity. Put simply, such no-cost and freely available seafood is an important part of the diet and sometimes provides much-needed cash for low-income households.
In other parts of the island, there are a significant number of small fishing communities. Around 60 fish landing stations punctuate the 205 km coastline. Tamarin, in the south-west part of the island, part of the Riviere Noire district, is one such place. The village, which lies at the mouth of a river estuary, is gaining a global reputation for big-game fishing, dolphin watching and surfing. It has a significant working-class Creole population, and the menfolk typically make their livelihoods from artisanal fishing using small boats within and just outside the lagoon.
The big challenges for the Tamarin fishermen are to ensure the sustainability of fish stocks and to find ways of adding value to the catch. As elsewhere in Mauritius, fish are often sold on the beach-side by middlemen to people from other ethnic groups who make up the island’s near 1.3 million population – Hindu, Muslim, Chinese and French Mauritians – as well as tourists in self-catering accommodation.
When I visit Mauritius, I am struck by the difference in taste and texture of fish that has just been landed compared with fish which has been lying around in the heat for several hours, even when protected by the shade of a tree.
When I purchase pole- and- line or long-line caught yellowfin tuna at my local supermarket in the U.K., I marvel at its quality, especially when taking into consideration that the produce will have been caught either in the Pacific or Indian Ocean, airfreighted to Gatwick or Heathrow and then transported by trucks around the country. Although the tuna in the supermarket doesn’t quite match the condition of the fish that can be obtained before noon at the beach in Mauritius, it is very definitely better quality than fish purchased in the afternoon.
Why? The difference is all down to refrigeration.
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