A pair of fishing boats based at Quero Niuni net fish on the outer reef a few km west of Niuni. Some twenty men are involved, as teams on both boats need to pull the line while snorkelers make sure that the fish don't escape through holes in the net or gaps where the net snags on the rough coral bottom some eight meters below the surface. Their catch was small, and they could only lay one or two nets in a morning before the winds picked up and the sea became too rough.
Hundreds of fishermen and their families set up temporary residence on this tiny speck of sand only a few hundred meters long, and about a hundred meters wide. Quero Niuni provides access to one of the last reefs in the Quirimbas with large fish. Most of the coastal villages have taken all but the smallest fish. Quero Niuni has no water, and all drinking water comes from the mainland by sailboat, costing 50 meticais per 20 liter container (about $2.00), in a country where the average unskilled wage is about $3-4/ day.
