San Francisco Frontiers - Qataris hooked on traditional fishing competition

Aboard the boats, men in customary sea gear -- a white t-shirt and towel -- pay tribute to the age-old tradition of line-fishing in the energy-rich Gulf emirate for the 11th edition of the Senyar festival.

"The feeling was amazing," competitor Mohammed al-Hail told AFP as he returned from four days out at sea to waiting friends and family at the close of the festival in Katara Cultural Village, a hub for arts and heritage preservation in Doha.

"As soon as we finished... here and there we saw our friends," said Hail, a naval officer.

Nearby, children dressed in traditional white thobes tried to measure themselves against three hefty fish, their scales glossy in the afternoon sun, strung up for crowds of onlookers.

The specimens -- each roughly 10 kilograms (22 pounds) -- were the largest caught during the week-long competition.

This year, 54 teams gathered to catch fish using simple handheld fishing lines, living for days at a time aboard dhows, the wooden boats that criss-crossed the Gulf waters around Qatar for centuries.

Competitors are rewarded for the biggest fish, but the most sought-after prize is presented for the number, quality and variety of fish caught using a points-based system that values hamour and kingfish over other local types.

- Preserving heritage -

Prior to the advent of the oil and gas industries, Qatar's economy, like many Gulf countries, was dominated by pearl-diving -- until artificial pearls began flooding the market in the 1920s -- as well as fishing.

But while reliance on these practices is a thing of the past, Qataris like Hail and his teammate Mohammed al-Mohannadi are eager to preserve the heritage.

"I feel good but I am not very happy about my result because I hoped to take first," Mohannadi said.

"But God willing next competition... we'll have a good result," he added.

Four days earlier, dozens of boats were scattered across the azure Gulf waters, roughly five kilometres (three miles) off the desert sands south of the Qatari capital.

Onboard the "Lusail" boat, Yousuf al-Mutawa explained that his team was setting fishing lines to take advantage of a mid-morning lull in the winds.

"When the wind comes down, the big fish come up," said Mutawa, whose 12-strong team was participating in the competition for the second year in a row.

The 55-year-old director of operations for Qatar's Lusail city explained that his father had been a trader on a small wooden dhow until the 1940s.

- '100 years back' -

Mutawa said his father used to work on a ship between Qatar and Kuwait, "taking some food from there and bringing it here".

Eventually, though, the boat was wrecked in high winds and his father took a job in Qatar's nascent oil industry, he explained.

If you saw "100 years back how they were eating... it was difficult for them", Mutawa said.

He added that his own sons had competed in previous years and he hoped they would again.

Ali Almulla, a Dubai real estate manager, said he had travelled from the United Arab Emirates to join the "Lusail" team for the second year.

"I came here to participate in the local traditional fishing. I'd say that's fun for us. It's nice to be with friends. It's good company," the 35-year-old said.

"It's good to have the younger generations... aware of what our grandfathers did back then," he added.

Almulla said his family also had deep roots in seafaring. "We got that from our father, and my grandfather and so on. My grandfather actually used to dive for pearls," he said.

The competitor said he took part in sports fishing competitions around the Gulf, some using modern techniques and others, like the Senyar festival, more traditional.

"Winning is nice, but we are here to enjoy," he added.

J.Martinez--SFF