Turkey’s fishermen cast lines as seasonal fishing ban lifted

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

AA Photo

With the end of the seasonal fishing ban on Sept. 1, fishermen set off to sea in the early hours of the morning in coastal cities around Turkey, with high hopes of making a good start to the fishing season.

Istanbul’s fishermen flocked to the newly built Gürpınar Marketplace of Fisheries late on Aug. 31 and sailed to the Marmara Sea in the early hours of Sept. 1, the date when the ban on fishing ended.

The new marketplace in Gürpınar, on the European side of the city, can hold 80 ships, 800 vehicles, and 250 tons of products per day. 

Fishermen in the Black Sea north of Istanbul reported that they fished many bonitos and horse-mackerels on their first day of fishing.

Yaşar Köse, one of the fish sellers in Black Sea port city of Samsun, said fishermen were returning from the sea mostly with bonitos and horse-mackerels on the first morning of the season. He said they were selling horse-mackerels for up to 7 Turkish Liras per kilogram at the moment, but expected prices to decrease with the increase of the fish in the market in the coming days.

Between April 15 and Sept. 1, a fishing ban on large boats was in effect in Turkey and large industrial fishing vessels and trawlers were legally prohibited from traversing the country’s seas. 

In the western province of Kocaeli, neighboring Istanbul, fishing boats set off from the coasts of Ereğli, Kandıra, Kefken and Bağırganlı. 

“We have got a variety of fish but their amount is low. The price is high but this is only the first day. We hope that prices will decrease this week,” said Hamdi Bineklioğlu, one of the fishermen in the area.

Another fisherman, Murat Şahin, said the windy weather was causing boats to return with fewer fish than expected from their first day.

“We expected to fish a large amount of bonito and anchovy. Anchovy is around 15 liras per kilos now and bonito is 15 liras, but we expect these prices to lower in time,” Şahin added. 

Alaattin Güney, a resident in Kocaeli, said he came to buy fish on the first day after the ban on fishing. “We buy the first fish of the year as a tradition. I bought anchovy for 10 liras per kilo. That’s not too expensive,” Günay said.