We Call on International Agencies to Support the Fishermen of Gaza

Tweet The Free Gaza Group (they are planning to sail into Gaza in September in solidarity with the people there) issues this press release about the circumstances of Gazan fishermen. If you know any people involved in the marine fisheries, please forward this article to them. Portion below. Whole article is here at the Free Gaza website: http://www.freegaza.org/pages/media/0707_fishermen.html

"Issues

• The basic human right of being allowed to feed oneself
• The environmental threats imposed by illegal military actions

"In Gaza, fishing is a potentially lethal experience. The Israeli Military ignores the Oslo Agreement that gives the Palestinians of Gaza the right to fish, and international law that designates a 20 naval-mile (NM) zone to the Palestinians. Therefore, the fishermen are constrained to a 6 nm zone for fishing preventing them from earning a living and feeding their families. Even within the 6 nm zone, the Israeli army is firing upon the fishermen.

"Also, this illegal restriction of the current fishing zone gives access only to a shallow coastal zone. Hence, a spawning and nursing zone that normally would be protected from most fishing activities and serve to populate the surrounding waters has become overexploited.

"Over almost thirty years, the fishing area available to Palestinian fishermen has been systematically reduced from a gigantic 75,000 sq km (before 1978, it included waters off the Sinai coastline), to 1,100 sq km (after 1978) to a mere 300 sq km today.

"Today, there are about 3,000 registered fishermen along with 2,000 people who are indirectly dependent upon the fishery industry. Another 35,000 Palestinians (assuming a seven person family size) depend upon the income of fishing and its related industry. The fishermen's catch could be one of priceless value for the 1.4 million struggling Palestinians.

"The Israeli boats are now fishing under Israeli navy protection in the area legally owned by the Palestinian fishermen. They are the ones that have access to high-priced species such as tuna and mackerel that are found only out in the twenty-mile zone and beyond. Fish are now caught by Israeli fishermen, who then turn around and sell back to the Palestinians for high prices to anyone who can afford them.