Paul Torday - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

So, fishing is fashionable, and its appeal crosses borders and it is becoming truly international, but nothing so far has prepared us for the idea that the mountains of the Heraz, in the Republic of Yemen, are soon to become the next playground for internationally minded game fishermen seeking the latest salmon fishing thrill.

Who is making this happen? A prominent and wealthy citizen of the Yemen has teamed up with the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence, an organisation we would not have anticipated would become involved in an adventure of this kind. But money talks and the millions of pounds that Sheikh Muhammad of the Wadi Aleyn is spending are talking loudly enough to grab the attention of the NCFE and even (it is rumoured) the director of communications at Number 10 Downing Street.

We have looked back through our files to find a similar instance of such absurdity from a government department, but we are unable to find anything to parallel this. At a time when the health of English and Welsh rivers is so fragile, and stocks of salmon and sea trout, not to mention brown trout, appear threatened by climatic change, our best fisheries scientists have been committed to a hare-brained scheme which is of absolutely no benefit whatsoever to our own angling community here in the UK.

Extract from the Sun, 23 August

‘ Chest’ wader

Glamorous Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, the dreamy blonde who is masterminding the crazy plan to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen, refused to talk to our reporter when we rang her today. We contacted her at exclusive West End estate agents Fitzharris & Price, to ask her to comment on her wacky idea-let’s all go salmon fishing in the desert! She couldn’t tell us too much about how it would all work, and refused to say anything about her Yemeni boss, Sheikh Muhammad. So we asked if she would like to get her kit off for our photographer and pose for us in ‘chest’ waders. We’re still waiting for her answer!

Letter to the editor of Trout & Salmon

Dear Sir,

I feel compelled to respond to the recent article about introducing salmon into the wadis of the Yemen.

Whilst I applaud the intention to introduce the sport of angling where fishing for sport has not so far been widely practised, I am bound to ask what is wrong with coarse fishing? Wouldn’t it be more practical and, dare I say, more affordable for the average Yemeni to have dace or perch introduced to their rivers? What about considering stillwater fishing for rainbow trout in the Yemeni reservoirs, an even more accessible and economical sport for the average fisherman? To me, the decision to introduce salmon into the wadis of the Yemen without any consultation is characteristic of the elitist attitude which still prevails far too often in fishery circles in this country and, it appears, in the Yemen as well.

Yours,

( Name withheld )

Letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph

Dear Sir,

I understand that there has been a lot of fuss about a plan to introduce salmon into the Yemen. I served in the Yemen in the 1950s. I was based in Aden and had the opportunity to see local fishermen going after everything from anchovies to sharks. I can well remember the Yemeni fishermen standing with perfect balance on the prows of their boats, setting out to sea to catch all manner of fish. I know that the Yemeni people are natural fishermen, and I am sure would make fine anglers, given the chance.

I applaud the imaginative nature of this project.

Yours sincerely,

( Major) (retd) Jock Summerhouse

Letter to the editor of The Times

Dear Sir,

The Republic of the Yemen has much expertise in the management of its fisheries. The Ministry of Fish Wealth is the responsible party, and the legal framework for our fisheries management is Aquatic Law N°42 (1991).

The Yemen fishing industry is second to none, being responsible for an annual catch of 126,000 tonnes per annum of different species, pelagic and non-pelagic, both by artisanal and by industrial means. Our annual consumption per capita of fish is 7.6 kilos per head.

It has been reported in your press that certain individuals are seeking to install a salmon fishery in our Yemeni watercourses. We have no official knowledge at this time of such proposals but we can confirm that such proposals would be entirely in accordance with the excellent Yemen traditional skill and expertise in fishing and fishery management.

Aquatic Law N°42 makes no reference to the management of a salmon fishery and would have to be amended in due course to include the possibility of a such a fishery. We respectfully conclude that such a project, if true, would be in the national interest and would be symbolic of Anglo-Yemeni co-operation.

Hassan bin Mahoud

Assistant to the deputy director

Ministry of Fish Wealth

Aden, Republic of Yemen

Email

From:

Tariq Anwar

Date:

20 August

To:

Al-Qaeda members in Yemen

Folder:

Outgoing mail to Yemen

I send you my greeting from beyond the swamps to your country where there is progress and civilisation-here we have many problems with our brothers the Taliban and they are not always acting in the best way according to the wishes of Abu Abdullah and the whole Nation of Islam. Also we have many adversaries who press from every side-the crusader special forces, even our brothers in Pakistan who have forgotten the true faith and chastise our people with guns and whips.

We have heard that the Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihami is now consorting with the English crusader prime minister and spending many millions of dollars on absurd and dangerous projects to bring salmon fish to the Yemen, and to persuade our brothers in the Yemen to fish for sport and not simply to feed the mouths of their families as is their duty. Moreover since all people in the Yemen must work from dawn until dusk, for six days of the week, just to keep the bread in their mouths and the mouths of their children, it follows that the sheikh will be expecting them to fish on the sabbath, which is expressly forbidden in the Koran.

This project is evil because it is not Islamic in its nature and because it is intended to distract attention from the greater evils that the crusaders are carrying out against the whole Muslim nation in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Therefore it must be stopped.

Abu Abdullah enjoins you to start an operation against Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi. You must call on one of our brothers in Finchley, London. He must carry out an operation against the sheikh with extreme urgency to liquidate him and stop the salmon coming to the Yemen. We have wired $27,805 which is the operational budget, to the usual account.

We ask God to lead you to the good of both this life and the afterlife.

Peace be upon you and God’s mercy and blessings.

Tariq Anwar

Email

From:

Essad

Date:

20 August

To:

Tariq Anwar

Folder:

Incoming mail from Yemen

Kind brother Tariq,

We don’t have any people in Finchley any more-they have all been arrested or dispersed by the British police. It would be necessary to send someone from here to Scotland to find the sheikh, unless the sheikh should return to his palace and his village here.

We don’t think this operation will be very popular. The Sheikh Muhammad is known everywhere as a man who follows God’s teaching very closely. The people in his wilayat all revere and adore him. It will be hard to find one who will liquidate him and certainly not for the operational budget you have mentioned.