Page 198 - UAE Truncal States

The Traditional Economics
dried form. Dried fish for human and animal consumption and in the
case of sardines for fertilizer was and still is a major export item from
all the Trucial Slates. It was estimated that during the 1950s and
early 1960s about 10,000 tons of fish were produced annually, of
which 6,000 tons were exported.10
It is almost impossible to estimate the number of people who used
to be involved in the fishing industry. For many people fishing was a
seasonal or an occasional occupation, while some depended entirely
on the sea for their living even after the decline of the pearling
industry. In 1969 the Trucial Stales Development Office estimated
that “there are about 30,000 people, all Arabs of local origin, who
depend wholly or partly upon the catch of fish for their cash
income.”17 It was also stated that the methods of fishing had not
changed, which meant that oars and sails were still in use as they had
been for centuries.
On the east coast there were several traditional ways of fishing.
The fisherman who operated on his own used a craft called shashah
which was made entirely from the branches of the date palms; the
space between the hull and the deck was filled with palm-fronds,
which gave the boat just enough buoyancy to stay afloat with one or
two persons on board, who while sitting on the often partly-
submerged deck, rowed themselves through the surf to lay out their
weighted nets. Sometimes wooden rowing boats were used which
could hold about ten people. The large surf boats called famlah were
fitted with sails and oars and could hold 25 to 30 crew; they were
used to set beach seines (nets laid out parallel to the shore)
sometimes up to 100 metres long. Usually such nets would have been
I very much shorter and could be laid out by any of the local types of
fishing craft, which after several hours pulled both ends of the net in
to the shore. The crew and other helpers, while chanting rhythmi­
cally, would pull the net up onto the beach and shake the catch,
sardines and anchovy, on the sand. The fish was laid out and dried in
the sun before being collected into baskets by the women and
children. The dried sardines were sold locally as fodder for cattle and
even for camels, or to be used as fertilizer; a considerable amount was
also exported to neighbouring countries.
On the east coast fishing and agriculture could be easily combined
as an occupation because the sea and the palm groves are both
within easy reach of the villages; the same applies to the coast of Ra's
al Khaimah. But elsewhere on the Trucial Coast the oases are a

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