Outlaws plunder Iraq's dwindling river fisheries

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

Outlaws plunder Iraq's dwindling river fisheries
by Ali al-Alaaq
Sun May 20, 6:47 PM ET

KUT, Iraq (AFP) - For thousands of years fishermen have drawn their livelihoods out of the brown waters of the mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which teem with species found nowhere else in the world.

But now -- as overlapping civil wars grip much of Iraq -- outlaws equipped with pesticides, hand grenades and electric cables are driving the country's fisheries to extinction and leaving local fishermen with empty nets.

"Iraq's fish are suffering from these terrible crimes," said Faiq Salim, one of the oldest fishermen in the central Iraqi town of Kut, 175 kilometres (110 miles) downriver from Baghdad.

"Fishermen are using poison and pesticides and electric cables and hand grenades," reminiscent of methods adopted by many Lebanese in the eastern Mediterranean during their 1975-1990 civil war, he complained.

"They are desperate for work, outside the law, and without any concern for their actions because of the absence of anyone policing them," added Salim, whose family has fished the Tigris river for generations.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070520/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestfishing

[glowing]

1. Radio-active fish... Hmm anyone hungry. With all the DU

being spread in that country and what it does to the babies being born, I wouldn't want to eat the fish.

[lonestarnot]

2. Maybe you better spell out depleted uranium, if you know what I mean.

[glowing]

3. Sorry, I always did hate that it is DU and DU here....

Yes, I did mean depleted uranium.

[glowing]

4. Sorry, I always did hate that it is DU and DU here....

Yes, I did mean depleted uranium.

[BushOut06]

5. Deadliest Catch, Iraqi style

Yet another sad consequence of *'s illegal war.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Nonsense. You're seeing the same fish being taken out of the river every time

The fish will greet us as liberators.

[rodeodance]

7. stories circulating that the fish eat rotting human flesh,"

At the same time, overall demand for fish has plummeted amid reports that dozens of victims of the sectarian bloodletting in and around Baghdad are being dumped in the Tigris.

"The number of customers has gone way down, and many have given up eating fish because of the stories circulating that the fish eat rotting human flesh," said Muhanad Ali, another fishmonger.