On Friday we travelled to the village of Ankol near the Vietnamese border to interview members of the fishing community using our community survey. The survey is used to collect information such as family details, fishing history and views and knowledge of marine conservation in the local region.
Groups of 2-3 volunteers and one Khmer translator interviewed a fisherman. It was interesting that even with the language barrier you could get a sense of the fisherman’s attitude towards marine conservation. The father of the man we were interviewing was excited to tell us about his own conservation crab bank and anti-trawling blocks and even produced a map of the offshore area.
the interviews took about 50 minutes to conduct and a MCC and villagers photograph was taken, afterwards. It was a great experience to travel to an ‘’untouched’’ region of Cambodia and meet fishermen who seemed to share MCC’s passion for stopping illegal fishing. Also for promoting protection of Cambodia’s fish and marine ecosystems to ensure their fishing livelihood for the future. Definitely an opportunity the average Cambodian traveller would miss out on!
Zoe Hebblethwaite
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