Page 200 - UAE Truncal States

The Traditional Economics
have as intimate a connection with the coast as the Bani Yas.
The different methods used lor fishing off the coast of Abu Dhabi
did not require a communal effort, as pearling did. The fishermen
knew which kind of fish came to feed on the type of vegetation
available in a particular spot. Some of the best fishing was done by set­
ting two nets (masakir) across t he mouth of a small creek, or along the
beach, at high tide. The nets were placed one on each side of a central
pole in the water and extended at a right angle to the tidal movement,
so that as the water receded the fish were trapped. This method is
called iskar. Yal is the name of another method by which one man
alone could catch fish. He would wait on the shore until he heard or
saw a shoal in the shallow water, whereupon he fastened one end of
the net to a pole on the shore (makhir), and took the other end of the
weighted net in a wide circle through the water to another point on
the shore, using a small boat or a dug-out. The net had an opening in
the middle for which the fish would make when the net was slowly
pulled in to the shore; behind the opening was a trap in which all the
fish were gathered. Even sharks were caught in this way. A similar
method called idfarah required two or three people; instead of having
a trap behind the net one man held the middle of the net down with
his feet as it was drawn into the shallow water. Some fishermen used
to wade in the shallows stalking the fish and catching them by
throwing over them a circular net, weighted at the edge and with a
rope attached to the middle; this method is called sollyah. The people
also set fishtraps, qarqur, which used to be made of palm fronds,
lowering them to the bottom of the sea with the entrance on the
downstream side. The crews on pearling vessels would put opened
shells in these traps to entice the fish, frequently leaving them on the
seabed all day in the hope of obtaining a good catch.
On the western Gulf coast, too, most of the catch was dried and
exported. Merchants from Qatar, Bahrain, QalTf or Dammam would
visit the islands occasionally to purchase fish. Fresh fish was sold in
the markets of Abu Dhabi and Dalma, or direct for consumption in
the oases, even as manure for the date palms. At one time dugong
(Latin sirenia dugong) were probably more plentiful in the Gulf than
now, but on the rare occasions when one was caught in a net it would
be killed and eaten as a delicacy.19

Collecting guano
Some of the islands in the Gulf have considerable deposits of guano.
Das, Zirku, Qarnain and Arzanah in the open sea, and Umm Hatab,

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