Dried fish - Mombasa

Walking past a godown, (Mombasa Kenya) filled 15 feet high with crumbling dried fish, I took this picture of a man loading some of it into a van.

Contrary to expectations, much of this dried fish does not originate off the coast of Kenya - despite plenty of deep sea fishing businesses, the 'shallow' continental shelf is narrow (50km at it widest point) and so large scale fishing is quite reduced - but comes by dhow or ship from Somalia and the Arabian peninsular.

Dried fish is a delicacy amongst coastal people who cook it in a variety of ways: some of them fry it or make it into a soup, others make it into a fish curry.

Fish oil is also extracted under great 'pressure', from dried fish. The old process is very interesting I think. The fish is lowered into a deep well - often found in the warehouse afore mentioned. At various levels salt is added, and then finally a huge pile of stones is dumped on top - like two tons of stone perhaps. A couple of months later the oil has oozed out. The Fish oil is used to protect the hull of wooden Dhows from insects and the remaining dried fish is still sold as food despite the absense of its oil¹.

1 - 'Cargoes of the East' by Esmond Bradley Martin and Chrysee Perry Martin.

17 September 2008 - 8:05am — Philip Cartland