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Vildan Bedir is the first member of her family in generations unable to make a living from the picturesque waters off . Her grandfather and father were sponge divers, and Bedir herself fishes on red mullet, whiting, and horse mackerel.��

Eyes lowered, Bedir, 55, said that she and her husband still fish a few months each year. But now, most of their income comes from growing wheat and picking olives – her former livelihood a victim of a changing climate, overfishing, and the spread of invasive species.����

“We just can’t make ends meet through fishing alone,” Bedir said, her hands fidgeting with an olive branch.

“At first, we tried changing the way we did things, like using a bigger net or changing fishing areas. Otherwise, it was not possible to continue.”

But with other costs rising, it was not enough. “We had to begin relying on picking and what we can grow in our garden.”��

Thirty-five years ago, Bedir and her husband turned to fishing to survive financial difficulties. With borrowed money, they bought a boat and fell in love with life on the sea.����

Even now, talking about fishing and the sea still lights up Bedir’s face, but the conversation always returns to her fears for the future.����

“I don’t just want to show pictures of the fish to my grandchildren. I want them to be able to continue the practice of fishing,” Bedir said.��

Bedir is not the only fisher feeling the negative effect of declining fish stocks. The deteriorating marine biodiversity is a major concern for all fishers, as well as government officials and civil society organizations, as interviewed by ������. Yet disagreement over responsibilities and solutions is creating an increasingly somber outlook for the sector.����

Marine patrol��

The , best known by its Turkish acronym, AKD, is a non-governmental group active in conservation efforts for Turkey’s coasts, lobbying for the enlargement of Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs. Since 2020, some of the bays in these MPAs have been closed to all types of commercial fishing in hopes of restoring marine ecosystems and increasing fish stocks.��

In addition to projects aimed at supporting traditional fishers, biodiversity, and endangered species, such as the Mediterranean monk seal, since last year, the NGO has been conducting regular patrols in no-fishing zones in Bozburun. Marine rangers monitor the implementation of the ban and other potentially harmful sea activities.��

Hamdi Türkmen and Nuri Tekin serve as AKD’s patrol officers. While navigating the inflatable patrol boat close to the shoreline to detect possible illegal activities, Türkmen and Tekin list the most frequent violations of the rules: fishing in No Fishing Zones, camping in prohibited areas, and anchoring boats to living trees.��

“The biggest problem here is the inspections are not enough,” said Tekin.����

The two marine rangers do not have jurisdiction to hand out fines or other penalties. During patrols, they can only warn rule breakers about the regulations. For further action, they need to alert the Coast Guard or other law enforcement officials.��

However, the Turkish Coast Guard in the region is mainly focused on migration. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which is also responsible for fisheries, is not prioritizing monitoring the regulations for sustainable fishing either.��

At the provincial office of a mid-rank ministry official responsible for fisheries, ������ witnessed how the official was struggling to arrange cars for a planned inspection, illustrating a lack of resources needed to follow up on existing laws and regulations.��

“It’s not the officials’ fault since they are limited in terms of budget,” Tekin continued. “We need to call [government officials] for legal procedures, and many times, they do not have boats to arrive at the scene.”����

Sometimes, Tekin personally uses the AKD boat to pick up law enforcement officers so that a breach of the rules does not go unpunished.��

Despite the regulations and laws in place to protect the environment and the efforts of the conservationists, most of the small-scale, traditional fishers ������ spoke to in the Bozburun region said that so far, there was no improvement in fish stocks.��

Increase of invasive species��

Mehmet Salih Gezer, another fisherman, supports marine protection efforts, though he said he remains skeptical about its impacts. He sits in the garden of his modest seaside hotel, which is his main source of income. Outside of the high tourist season, he still fishes with his wife every once in a while. But that is mostly for his own pleasure.����

“The no-fishing zone can be a good thing, but [instead] it turned this place into a breeding ground for puffer fish,” he said. Native to the Red Sea, the puffer fish has been spreading around Turkey's Mediterranean for more than a decade and is highly poisonous.��

“I have 50 years of experience on the sea,” Gezer went on. “I say this based on my experiences: what I see is not an increase of the local fish, but an increase of invasive species.”��

The fisherman then points to the sea as a small puffer fish passes by. Seemingly innocent, the small, dotted fish is the source of much trouble. The puffer fish have almost no natural predators in the area. While destroying nets and swallowing hooks, they also eat babies of other species. “They are monsters,” Gezer said.��

The future of fishing��

Elif Yerebakan, the AKD project coordinator for the Datça/Bozburun Peninsula, is just as worried about the increase in the number of invasive species.����

“Of course, the numbers of puffer fish are growing, but did it increase because of the no-fishing zone?” Yerebakan asked. “Or are there more puffer fish because of the disruption of the balance of the ecosystem?”����

Owing to a lack of research, there is no clear answer to that question.����

Vahdet Ünal, a professor at the Faculty of Fisheries at Ege University specializing in small-scale fisheries management, told ������ that the puffer fish is one of the central problems in the area but stressed that they were found in the Mediterranean long before no-fishing zones were established.��

Ünal’s research on the socioeconomic status of fishers in the Bozburun region showed that illegal fishing activities, a lack of enforcement of existing laws combined with the challenge of invasive species, create pessimism. All told, 94 percent of the fishers said they were pessimistic about the future of area fisheries.��

He pointed out that Bedir and Gezer are part of a large group of fishers who must rely on side jobs. Fifteen years ago, 43 percent of the fishers in this peninsula would not have any other source of income other than fishing. The latest , published five years ago, shows that only 28.6 percent of the surveyed fishers said fishing was their only income source. The number is almost surely lower today. “The rest supported their livelihood with two or more additional income sources,” Ünal said.��

Unless there are some significant changes in the management of fisheries, Ünal counts himself among those who are not optimistic about the future of small-scale fishing in Turkey.��

Still, Bedir struck a defiant tone.����

“I love the sea. I don’t think I will even be able to live without seeing the sea,” she said. “I've been working on the sea for 35 years. I want my children and grandchildren to be able to do the same.”��

Gonca Tokyol��is a freelance journalist from Turkey, recently working with BBC, Financial Times, Turkey recap and others

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Ingrid Woudwijk is a multimedia Turkey correspondent based in Istanbul mainly working for Dutch newspaper Trouw and Turkey recap��

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