Seafood is the main source of protein for people living on the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. Men on the island fish, and women who live in the villages of Zanzibar can earn about $100/year gathering shellfish. Hauke Kite-Powell started a project with the University of Dar es Salaam's Institute of Marine Sciences about 10 years ago to improve their skills and capacity for farming shellfish. Areas close to shore have been exhausted, and women need to walk a long distance out to gather shellfish. And the tides there are low enough to do this only on the very low ones that come with the full moon, one week each month.
The Island Creek Oysters Foundation joined the project about a year ago, contributing technical expertise gained from oyster farming in the US as well as financial backing. Priorities are to build a small shellfish hatchery, and to teach the women how to grow local shellfish close to shore, using methodologies very similar those used to grow oysters in Duxbury. While the hatchery is constructed, experiments are being carried out to see how shellfish grow when transplanted closer in to the shore in mesh bags (for easier harvesting).
She will earn maybe $1-$2 for the day's work picking Anodera clams on this tide.
A bucket of Anodera. The result of a couple of hours work.
In addition to gathering of shellfish, many women also harvest seaweed. Lines are tied between the sticks and seaweed hung over the lines. Over time, more and more seaweed attaches until there is enough to harvest.
It's hard to get a true sense of scale. If you walk from where I took this picture to the people at water's edge, it would take 15-20 minutes.
In the village of Fumba, it takes a good 25 minutes to get the the water line.
Drawing a baseline so new growth can be measured on the next month's low tides.
The bags were placed at three distances from shore. Each bag is filled with 30 Anodera. This initial experiment is to see how the Anodera clams thrive (or not) in bags over time.
In the lab, looking for spawning activity. The power has been out on Zanzibar for several months, and was still off on this day. So the microscope needed an auxilliary lamp. I thought it might come in handy when I packed it--for finding my way around and reading. Using it to light samples under a microscope was one use I'd not thought of.
