An edible seaweed that has long been a crucial component of the cuisine, culture, and economy of the island country of Fiji is collected by a group of women who spend a lot of time travelling out to sea.
However, the availability of the seaweed is currently considerably worsening, endangering the lives of many.
A kind of seaweed known as nama, often known as sea grapes, is noted for its pearl-like formations.
Nama offers high levels of vitamins and minerals, claims Nama Fiji, a cosmetic brand that employs marine plants.
According to Reuters, it is a staple of the everyday diet of the Fijians and is often eaten soaking in coconut milk.
But the supply of nama on the island is beginning to suffer from increasing global temperatures and an increase in storm frequency.
Fisherwomen from Fiji told Reuters that despite spending more time seeking for the seaweed, they are now getting far less in return.
Sera Baleisasa said, “We are having trouble. “Filling a bag takes two to three hours. Before, it took an hour to an hour and a half.”
The 52-year-old Karen Vusisa told Reuters that she now spends considerably more time looking for nama and can only gather approximately half as much as she formerly could.
She could previously fit a 44-pound potato bag’s worth of seaweed within. Now that she can only fill a 22-pound bag, her income has been drastically reduced.
Miliakere Digole, a local lady, told Reuters that she purchases nama straight from the fisherwomen before travelling for several hours to sell it at a market in the nation’s capital.
The average cost of a 22-pound bag from the fisherwomen is $9.13. Larger sacks weighing around 55 pounds that the ladies were able to collect would sell for roughly $18.25.
By reselling a whole 55-pound bag of nama, Digole now often earns a little over $40 over the course of three to four days. She earns little over $27 for a 22-pound bag.
The scenario, according to marine scientist and Women in Fisheries organiser Alani Tuivucilevu, is unfortunate.
“They have always lived like this. Therefore, the decline of a way of life results from the depletion of the supply “She spoke to Reuters.
“It’s not only the extinction of certain species, though. Additionally, a certain culture is eroding. not only the Fijian culture, but also the wider Pacific culture.”
There is “less and less time for these essential supplies to resupply” because to the increasing frequency of tropical storms, according to Tuivucilevu.
More than simply food and money are impacted by the storms. Tuivucilevu pointed out that since women are compelled to remain at home during cyclones, many of them experience domestic abuse.
More than 6,800 instances of domestic abuse were recorded in 2021, according to the Fiji Women’s Crisis Center.
The coordinator of the facility, Shamima Ali, revealed to The Fiji Sun earlier this year that around 64% of the country’s women had been victims of intimate partner abuse.
It has a wide range of consequences, Tuivucilevu told Reuters.
Baleisasa asked big governments to take into account the island countries of the globe while formulating their measures to address the climate catastrophe.
The world’s island countries are “on the threshold of extinction,” the sombering climate change report from the United Nations warned last year.
The research warns that in addition to other effects of climate change, the world must quickly achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions and decrease other greenhouse gases.
This would help avoid major sea level rise and even more powerful storms.
According to Tuivucilevu, adaptability has always been a “driving theme” for countries in the Pacific, but this cannot go on indefinitely.
We cannot continue to adapt, she remarked. “The primary emitters must understand that we are bearing the brunt of the repercussions, not them.
We must bear the repercussions of their conduct.”