Hi to all my followers...currently I have none.....I am perhaps a reluctant blogger as blogs can sometimes read like the rantings of a personal diary revealing thoughts and moments in a life that can be interesting or otherwise...but I was persuaded by my good friend Fransisco to do one so I dedicate this blog to him. He has an excellent blog by the way http://mundo-francisco.blogspot.com/


My blog starts in north Sudan, where I live and work in a town called Port Sudan. Dusty, very dry and hot, Port Sudan is the hub of this desert state and the coastal gateway to the country. The population is officially recorded at 300,000 but is perhaps closer to 800,000, as people have moved here from the coutryside to look for work, escape drought and build their lives after 37 years of conflict. In 2005, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the southern rebels and khartoum government and a year later the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement was signed with the Beja of the Red Sea State drawing to a close Africa's longest running civil war.


Port Sudan was designed by the British about 100 years ago. Its based on a grid system of roads, raliways and buildings that were developed to assist the export of cotton to the mills of Manchester and the products that fueled Britian's industrialisation. The town has Anglican churches, civic and nautical buildings and at its heart the souk (market) where anything from dates to 4x4 Hilux's can be bought. The relationship between Sudan and Britain is long and enduring and a topic of a future blog. But I have met old men that speak 'BBC English', others that accompanied Prince Philip's visit in the 70's to show him the reefs as well as folk that attended Grimsby College or managed a new agents in Charing Cross and love London.

Whilst much of the attention of the international community has been drawn to southern Sudan, the investments in the RSS have been mainly in the agriculture sector with only a small amount invested in the sea and its fisheries. This is where I work. I am the technical advisor to the fishery sector funded by the European Union and I have an office in the State's Fishery Administration, which has seen little investment and few donors in the last 20 years.

Ironically, the Red Sea fishery is the most productive resoure in the state. With the land suffering from drought and needing extensive irrigation investments, the sea continues to provide fish and marine produce to its coastal communities. The coastal community come from the Beja tribe who have a few generations of fishing experience. Unlike many other coastal communities throughout the world that are demanding more and more from their local fishery the Beja's preference is for meat and therefore local demand for fish is low.

My work aims to improve the management of the Red Sea fishery and the livelihoods of its fishers. The Red Sea in Sudan is a complex of coral reefs and islands with multiple fish species and different users. Fisheries management is not about managing fish its about managing people, and the main challenge facing Sudan relates to its governance. There is a constant tension between Khartoum and the rest of Sudan, between its periphery and centre. For the 1000 or so small-scale fishers that use hook and line to fish the 870 km of coastline, their lives and communities are on the extreme periphery of Sudan's governance. Now both the federal and state government are sparing over its petroleum deposits and wanting to develop its tourism potentials. How the Beja respond to change will determine how the marine resources develop. Over the next year or so I hope to keep you up-to-date with how events unfold as well as what life is like in one of the world's more remote maritime and cultural gems.