The ferry makes its journey from Sfax to Kerkennah twelve times a day loaded with men, women, children, wagons and cargo. Twelve flights allow the archipelago to maintain its connection with the mainland. Moreover, the Kerkennah Islands live in the open sea and in a close relationship with it, with a flow of bitterness to see its features change.

In the waters, the inhabitants of the archipelago have a share of a great wealth of Fish and other aquatic life, or so-called fish resources. Thus, fishing occupies the main place in this relationship that has arisen between the population and their environment and regulates the pace of their life as a means of subsistence, the lung of the economy, a social function, and sometimes a simple hobby.

FIshing was the subject of photographer Douraïd Souissi’s lens, the archipelago where his father was born, and where he regularly goes. This practice is the fruit of transmission from generation to generation "children begin to learn it from the age of 7-8 years," says the photographer, who sees fishing as more than just an economic activity, but an integrated lifestyle, which prompted him to photograph it. Douraïd knows very well what fishing is and how it is practiced, and he has accompanied fishermen at sea.

His photos taken in 2013 still have the same resonance even after 9 years where the problem continues. From his position, the photographer monitors the social, economic and environmental issues that this activity is going through and the problems that stand in its way.

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At least a century ago fishing was divided into two methods. The first include a number of traditional techniques, the most striking of which is the Charfia; by depositing traps made of palm fronds and nets in shallow water to create a path that ends up trapping the fish entering it. "The large size of the trap allows the fish to stay in the middle and swim calmly without suffering the stress caused by trawling in the traditional way,” says Douraïd. UNESCO in 2020 classified this technique in the list of intangible heritage.

The Kerkennah Islands specialize in this technique and practice it thanks to the surrounding shallow waters. Charfia paints a faithful picture of the archipelago, with its lands open to the sea, whose people use the materials available to make fishing tools. Other traditional fishing techniques are also used by the islanders, such as fishing with traps, clay pots or what is known as “Qaroor" to catch "Qarnit" (octopus).

The technique of bottom trawling comes to overshadow traditional practices. "A net is pulled to the bottom by chains, scraping it for kilometers, lifting animals and plants indiscriminately while the boat sails very slowly," describes Douraïd, who spent almost 24 hours at sea with the experienced fisherman in the bottom trawling technique. Although the authorities officially banned its use in 1942, the technology is still present in the waters of the archipelago today.

This technique is of particular importance because it allows catching a much larger amount of fish than the Charfia, which requires two trips, the first to plant it and the second to lift it. As for trawls, they grab everything that gets in their way, as the photographer noted, "on 300-400 kg lifted to the surface, no more than 10-15 kg of exploitable fish are kept". "A few squids and a small number of shrimps, and then everything that is not kept is thrown away," he said. However, the damage has already got on the living creation and algae of the seabed.

So that he could watch this practice closely, Douraïd Souissi had to hide the identity of these fishermen so that they would accept him on the ship "on condition that their faces were not shown, they know that their act is criminal". The photographer says that this technique causes great bitterness to traditional fishermen who see the seabed threatened by this "easy" technique, even the tension between them reached a high that led a trawling boat to capsize.

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The Kerkennah islands are a land of paradoxes. Its sea provides residents with food and income, allows them to live and survive. The population has learned to take advantage of the resources of the sea, but this balance is fragile, given the threat to the archipelago, climate change and rising water may one day lead to the swallowing up of these low-altitude Islands.

In addition to sea level rise, climate change has recently led to the emergence of new species in the Mediterranean, including the blue crab, which has taken a foothold in shallow waters. This species of crustacean initially represented a nightmare for fishermen, as they tear the Charfia nets with their pliers and catch fish and other local species. "They ended up catching it and it reached the markets at some point, but the taste of Tunisian consumers was not used to eating this animal," Douraïd says with regret, recalling that this crab can be found even in the markets of the capital.

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Out of this dilemma, others have decided to abandon the activity, and today the location of their island has put them on the path of migration towards Europe being an ideal starting point to Italy. The photographer tells us that" there are those who find work in this field better than trying to find fish “according to the chatter he got from the islands where he still has relatives.

Although fishing is at the core of the identity of the archipelago, the depletion of fish resources impairs the possibility of its transfer to modern generations. For today's young people, nothing guarantees them that when the day comes for them to go fishing on their own, they will find enough fish to make a living out of.

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