Ahmad Slim is a veteran fisherman from Sarafand who has fished all up and down Lebanon’s coastline. Since the liberation of southern Lebanon in 2000, he has been primarily stationed in the port of Naqoura, a village located on the border with Israel.
“I inherited the profession from my father, who inherited it from his own father. Our family is known in Sarafand for our experience in fishing,” Slim tells AMWAJ. “But everything has changed now. The situation is horrible, and it gets worse every day,” he adds.
Having been a fisherman for more than 25 years, Slim has witnessed key events in Lebanon’s recent history that severely affected the sector and its labour force. He considers the full-scale Israeli war on Lebanon in September-November 2024 a turning point. “We kept fishing and risked our lives,” he says.
The state of the Lebanese fisheries sector
Lebanon’s coastline is 220 km long, hosting 44 fishing ports and landing sites. The Lebanese fishing fleet, composed of 3,000 vessels, is of an artisanal and small-scale nature, primarily employing traditional fishing methods, such as trammel nets, longlines, and purse seine nets. It captures around 3,500 tons of fish annually. The country’s 300 freshwater aquaculture farms produce approximately 1,200 tons annually, contributing to a total local production of around 4,500 tons. This figure is eclipsed by imports, which total 35,000 tons annually.
Lebanon’s fishing industry faces numerous challenges, from war, the effects of the economic crisis, and the dominance of imports. Local fishermen are often abandoned to manage on their own.
War is a major source of hardship for the sector and its labour force. In 2006, the industry and its labour force were rendered more vulnerable after Israeli attacks on fishing harbours such as Ouzaii. Israel also attacked the Jiyyeh powerplant fuel depots, resulting in a massive oil spill that extended across the Lebanese coastline. This resulted in decreased fish consumption, harming the income of workers and vessel owners.
During the most recent hostilities in 2023-2024, which escalated in September 2024, fishermen in southern Lebanon were impacted once again by a plethora of risks, from abductions by Israeli forces, warnings not to go to sea, and displacement orders to a lack of financial support.
Lack of data and the need for law enforcement
The Ministry of Agriculture and relevant security personnel responsible for maritime fishing law enforcement still lack resources and updated data on irregular, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.
A 2013 analysis of Lebanon’s fishing fleet shows that there is no concrete or updated data about the fishing sector in Lebanon, especially in terms of the number of vessels, licensing and labour force. Scientific knowledge essential for the management of the sector is also lacking.
What is known is that during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the fishing fleet grew up to 3,000 vessels, and with that, illegal practices like dynamite fishing emerged and are still prevalent.
The formation of the new cabinet in January 2025 sparked optimism for multi-sectoral reforms and law enforcement. For marine fishing, amendments reinstated the prohibition of dynamite use and unmandated fishnet sizes.
Dynamite fishing is a homemade method that increased in sophistication with the onset of the economic crisis in 2019, which devastated the livelihoods and labour conditions of fishermen. During that time, fuel prices increased with hyperinflation, and dynamite fishing proved to be a cost-effective technique to maintain steady or bigger catches without time-consuming pursuit.
Fishermen were hopeful for support in reconstruction and compensation of losses, which is still on hold due to disagreements on the mechanisms of the implementation of the 2006 UN-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Most importantly, fishermen are directly impacted by continuous Israeli ceasefire violations. “In Naqoura, Israeli forces occasionally target our vessels with hand grenades or even sound bombs,” Slim tells AMWAJ.
Poor labor conditions
A reinitiation of law enforcement after a period of political deadlock could be harmful to unregulated sectors. This can be seen in maritime fisheries, whose many labourers have resorted to illegal practices to maintain their profession and livelihoods.
Fishermen in Lebanon have long faced poor labour conditions, poverty, and little to no social protection. As the industry remains unappealing to young people, its labour force is an ageing one that does heavy and physically demanding work in unsafe conditions, without healthcare insurance or social security.
The maritime fishing labour force is also contenting with class bias reflected in different types of licensing. For professional fishermen like Slim, their agricultural licenses are renewed annually at around $100, in addition to vessel mechanic and inspection fees. These documents are reviewed by a security apparatus responsible for fishing harbours.
However, there is also a tourist license, which can be obtained by amateur fishermen for around $600. Amateur fishermen have the ability to fish, sell, and buy advanced gear. They are also able to buy fishing vessels off older fishermen. “We suffer from amateur fishermen who are changing the face of the sector and taking advantage of the poor conditions of many fishermen,” Slim says. Tourist licenses can be considered an indicator of privatisation in the sector, further compromising fishermen’s unstable income, sales, and fish markets.
Finding solutions
The year 2025 marks a new commitment by the Lebanese government to improve maritime fisheries. In May, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a campaign to support marine conservation, regulate the fishing sector and protect the livelihoods of fishermen in several areas in Lebanon.
According to Mohammad Al Samra, a 63-year-old fisherman and the treasurer of Saida’s fishermen syndicate, “we advocate for every fisherman, but no one listens to us.” As a syndicate, advocacy and demands are directly made to decision-makers. Al Samra tells AMWAJ that fishermen’s demands have always been the same, namely, social security to guarantee healthcare coverage, marine conservation efforts to protect and guarantee catches, license regulation, law enforcement against illegal fishing methods, and regular fleet maintenance policies. “We have to do maintenance two to three times a year. Insulation and mould prevention alone cost around $400,” explains Al Samra.
Fishermen often rely on in-kind donations from local political parties and non-governmental projects funded by UN agencies that support the establishment of fish markers, provide essential gear, and better resource management.
One local initiative, Diaries of the Ocean (DOTO), is implementing methods that promote sustainable fishing to protect fish populations and the fishing industry as a whole, and to avoid resource depletion. Rawan Al Jamal, a marine biologist at DOTO, explains how they worked both directly and indirectly with fishermen. “Between 2022 and 2024, we worked at the Aamchit harbour in the Byblos District, north Lebanon and built a fish nursery,” Al Jamal explains.
Fish nurseries are a sustainable fishing method that provides a space for juvenile fish to be nurtured and to grow in size while being protected against predators. This creates a non-polluted environment that preserves fish and water quality and promotes fishermen’s livelihoods. DOTO is also working in Aaqbiyeh to establish a fishing cooperative and diversify the income of fishers so they’re not purely reliant on the catch.
“We are working to promote the idea that we can invest in the sea in a variety of ways. This is important to mitigate the issue of overfishing, which has compromised many fishing populations,” says Al Jamal. Processing catches into recipes, creating packages, labelling, food safety measures and marketing are ways fishermen can increase their sales and income. Diaries of the Ocean have also supported the harbour in building a wastewatertreatment plant in the cooperative.
The fishing sector in Lebanon needs reform that starts with responding to the demands of fishermen who have dedicated their lives to it. “We are in a bad situation, but we get to be in the sea, looking at its beauty. This profession provides us with freedom,” Al Samra concludes.