If goats could walk on water....

For me this photo shows a clash of ecosystems and a reminder that the desert and the sea are uncomfortable neighbours in Sudan. Stand with your heals on the waters edge and facing away from the sea the thing that strikes you is the silence. you hear nothing, no waves, no gentle caressing of the sand, no idyllic transition from land into the sea. Instead an abrupt silence. You would not know that behind you is one of the most diverse and riches marine ecosystems in the world. That metres away below the sea surface lie coral gardens, colourful fish and an assortment of the bizarre and rare. Beyond that, the sea depth drops away and reaches the abyssal depths of 3 km where little is known. Standing here, facing away from the sea and looking at the desert with its extreme openness, and feeling of nothingness you could be in the middle of the desert. But as you turn around the openness continues and here is perhaps the link between the land and sea, because as you turn the far horizon of the desert merges with that of the sea and the feeling of the desert continues and surrounds you. For the beja that sometimes sit and watch the sea, tending their goats, it may appear that the sea is just an extension of their desert. They rarely enter the water, catch or eat its fish. Like the house on this photo above, the Beja sit at the waters edge and if their goats could walk on water and graze on the sea they might understand it better. The fishers that do venture and use the water and live off its renewable supply of fish nearly always come from outside from another tribe. Perhaps from the Nile where there is a tradition of fishing that they now use in the sea.

Fishing by other people that come from outside is also happening with Sudan's offshore waters. The government has restricted the size of the Sudanese fishing boats and engines to 11m and 40hp so the distances and capacity of each boat is limited. This has been done to stop smuggling. Very good you might say, no chance of becoming pirates. However the offshore waters and its rich supply of pelagic fish such as tuna, jacks and shark now belong to the fishermen from other countries. Some are given licenses to trawl for prawn and anything else they can fish as they are allowed to keep their by-catch. Whilst others enter and leave at will. Perhaps if these illegal boats were stealing goats there would be more concern from the beja but here the values are different. For those in Khartoum who make the deals from the licensing of many an Egyptian trawler the value of the marine resource is personally very high. Certainly more than a few goats worth.