From Vietnam, Moving Sushi headed onto to India, starting the expedition in Mumbai. Our goal in Mumbai was to interview the Bombay Natural History Society regarding their work on the community fisheries management project in the Lakshadweep islands. We met Dr. Apti, who we interviewed regarding this epic success story community management utilizing religion. We were amazed at learning the simplicity of the methods required to make the Lakshadweep fishery management project a success. With a similar capacity to most developing African nations, we have gained valuable knowledge in how to extrapolate the required means to initiate a similar project in Africa. We were afforded 2 hours of Dr. Apti’s time, to which we are truly grateful.
Linda and I spent 2 to 3 days in Mumbai gathering video images including standing on the docks at 4:30 am before the fishermen arrived to get images fish landings, which was rather difficult to say the least.
From Mumbai, we had the unfortunate experience of visiting Goa, our goal to get underwater and look at the inshore coast, typical of one that has suffered extreme fishing pressure throughout time. The scene underwater was dyer, with little to no fish observed. Massive harbour developments have resulted in silting of the corals, so despite mechanical damage of corals sedimentation will be their ultimate demise, the only lifeline been the monsoon, which lifts the sediments of the reef through the turbulence.
From Goa, the expedition headed to Bangalore where we met up with Dr. Shanker of the Dakshin Foundation. Dr. Shanker and his team have worked tirelessly on generating sound scientific data for the foundation of new marine resource management policies and decisions to be based on. His work has been hard, yet vital to any forward progress towards successful marine resource management. Hi work has focused on turtles in India, and looking at satellite tagging amongst others. It was interesting to understand the challenges he overcome by the solutions he has discovered, again potential for Africa.
From Bangalore we headed to Chennai, where we joined Dr. Darhini from the TREE Foundation who is working beyond humane hours on turtle conservation. Her work and the enthusiasm of her team were infectious, and we spent hour after hour sharing ideas, contacts, and solutions to management of marine resources and conducting lectures and workshops for the foundation. In 4 days we achieved volumes, and we look forward to showcasing our efforts and Dr. Darhini’s when we return to South Africa.
Lastly our route took us to Trivandrum, where we met and interviewed Father Thomas Kocherry, a priest, activist, environmentalist, politician, you name it he represents it. We learned of the hunger strikes he undertook in Deli to draw attention to the ill natured foreign fleets plundering Indian marine resources. Father Kotcherry also started the world fisheries forum and has work beyond expectations in developing a community management system in southern India. We were honesty staggered at Father Kocherry’s achievements but also passion, drive and kindness.
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