Page 200 - UAE Truncal States_Neat
P. 200

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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