Children dressed in traditional white thobes tried to measure themselves against three hefty fish, their scales glossy in the afternoon sun.
Category
ЁЯЧЮ
NewsTranscript
00:00On the Doha seashore, rows of Uden Dao boars lying in a pier with scores of fish on display,
00:07part of a festival seeking to revive the country's long seafaring tradition.
00:11Aboard the boars, men in customary sea gear, a white t-shirt and towel pay tribute to the
00:17old age tradition of flying fishing in the Energy Ridge Gulf Emirate for the 11th edition of the
00:22Senyar festival. So now we are now in this time because the wind is came down we are putting now
00:29to catch the big fish because when the wind is coming down the big fish is coming up.
00:34Children resident traditional white thopes tried to measure themselves against three
00:38hefty fish their scales glossing in the afternoon sun strung up for crowds of onlookers. The specimens
00:44each roughly 10 kilograms were the largest caught during the week-long competition.
00:50Now you see that different life if you come 100 years back how they was eating how this was
00:57difficult for them no engine no thing. This year 54 teams gathered to catch fish using simple
01:04handled fishing lines living for days at a time abroad dows the wooden boards that crisscrossed
01:10the gulf waters around Qatar for centuries. This is basically by generation we got that from our
01:17father and then my grandfather and so my grandfather actually used to dive for pearl. Competitors are
01:26rewarded for the biggest fish but the most sought-after prize is presented for the number quality and
01:32variety of fish caught using a point space system that values hammer and kingfish over other local types.
01:39To be honest the winning is nice but we are here to enjoy we are here to enjoy. Prior to the advent of
01:47the oil and gas industries Qatar's economy like many gulf countries was dominated by pearl diving until
01:53artificial artificial pearls began flooding the market in the 1920s as well as fishing. But while
01:59reliance on these practices is a thing of the past Qataris like Hale and his teammate Muhammad Al Mohanadi
02:05are eager to preserve the heritage. Our friends and groups and all of us who came they were our support
02:14well as soon as we finished we arrived in here there we saw our friends it was a bit long about we can say
02:22four days at the sea so when they came and we actually won the eighth eighth days it's good the feeling
02:29was really amazing and really good. I feel good but I am not very happy about my results because I hope
02:40I take care of the first we take the aid. Four days earlier dozen supports were scattered across the azure
02:47gulf waters roughly five kilometers off the desert sand south of the Qatari capital. On board the
02:54Lusail boat Yusuf Al Motawa explained that his team was setting fishing lines to take advantage of a
03:00mid-morning lull in the winds. The 55-year-old director of operations for Qatar's Lusail city explained that
03:07his father had been a trader on a small Udhan Tao until the 1940s.