Morocco was not going to let us go easily. We had managed, through a most wonderful lady who has endeared herself to us for life probably, to secure a two hour interview with the ministry of fisheries, Madame Zachia Driwitch, where she was incredibly open (for an official government person) and forthcoming with large amounts of information on Moroccan fisheries developments and statistics.
She elaborated on how Morocco was trying to ensure that the fish stocks are preserved and growth occurs as so much of their nation’s exports consist of fish. It is very much in the government’s interest to keep the stocks from collapsing, so aquaculture development is also very high on their agendas as well as monitoring all the boats and the catch limits they have.
One thing can be said for Moroccan fisheries, every port has radar, 24 hour surveillance and monitoring of all fish catches coming out of every port. They are incredibly vigilant with this and it was quite nice to see. The only downside is that the preservation of the fisheries and marine life is not really for conservation issues, but economic ones.
You see Morocco does not have a single NGO present in their country, they are not allowed. Apparently the King and his wife run the conservation side of Morocco, and they see no need for any help from any outside sources. While they have all the necessary systems for conservation in place, catch limits, monitoring, strong management with the ability to enforce fishing moratoriums on sensitive species (which they do very effectively), there is no real transparency with their data, or ability for outside criticism of anything.
The only group we were able to find making a dent in marine conservation, for conservations sake and not economical preservation, was a small father and son team, proving that anything is possible by simply working with what you have and not fighting against it. Adil and his father have setup a small surf camp on one of the beaches of Southern Cassablanca. Adil is Morocco’s number 1 seed surfer and runs a surf school from a small tent on the beach. Recently they held the first Moroccan surfing and body board championships where kids from all the nearby areas were shipped onto the beaches and given goodies, shows, live music and surfing all day.
During this Adil would initiate beach cleanups along the coast holding the competition, and the children would be given prizes accordingly. The day focuses on marine life and marine appreciation with pamphlets, posters and talks by famous Moroccan surfers. They did so well with their turnout, that they plan to have an even bigger one the following year. Added to this Adil also goes to schools and offers free lectures on marine and beach conservation, and all the kids who surf in his school participate in beach clean ups before they start their surf lessons.
They now are attempting to become members of Surfrider international, an organization that provides scientists and researchers to evaluate beaches and the environmental damage done to them and methods of reversing this damage, as well as the funding to make it happen!
We were quite sad to watch the coastline of Africa drift into the distance. Even though we knew that in 30 minutes we would be crossing into a first world ‘everything-works-and-runs-on-time’ environment, it still filled us with a certain amount of apprehension.
You see in Africa we always have options. The continent embodies a type of attitude that says “no matter what, we can always make a plan. ” There will always be someone, somewhere that will help you get what you need done, done.
Spain and the EU meant first world, which meant that our days of smiling and hopeing for the best were pretty much over, and frankly that mad us nervous. Also added to this was the fact that we had no vehicle insurance or green card.
Nevertheless if we have taken one thing very much to heart from our Africa trek is that we are one set of lucky buggars, and as luck would have it, after furious amounts of phone calling to South African insurance agencies (advice for any other South African driving a SA registered vehicle up to Europe, no one will insure you, even if you beg), the British ( sorry old chap) and even some rather far fetched options all resulting in a dead end.
But eventually we eventually found a nice old Dutch lady from the Netherlands who, on one phone call, just went “yah kiddies no worries it’s all taken car of.” Bless the Dutch; bless them in all their clog tapping, beer swilling, and cheese making ways.
We were now sitting on a beach facing the African continent, fully green card insured for every country in Europe and with Russia tossed in for good measure. We are most definitely going to be celebrating the Netherlands national day from now on. DUTCH FOREVER!
As it goes we had to leave quickly after a few visa debacles (a story for a whole extra blog). We needed to get into Portugal and move on towards northern Spain, where we were going to be filming Oceana, ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna), and IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature).
I remember sitting on the sand dunes and looking over the short 18km strip of water to the towering mountains of Morocco. It was strange to thing that the mighty African continent was over, yet so close and visible. It looks so easy to swim across and unfortunately this illusion leads to many deaths by hopeful Africans trying to seek a better life in Europe.
