Fishing with Electricity in Iraq

While the majority of the passage is in MSA, there were 2 or 3 Iraqi words in this report from Al-Jazeera that I wasn't able to make out. If you happen to know them please let me know so I can improve. I marked them with underscores. After the text I put a list of the words that I thought might be difficult or new.




كل الطرق متاحة لصيد السمك فلا رقابة و لا رادعة. في السابق كان صيد بصعق كهربائي على سبيل المثال يُدخل صاحبه إلى السجن. لكنه الآن متاح حتى لو أثر بشكل مباشر على الحيات المائية كلها.

Every method is allowed in fishing because there is no supervision and no restrictions. In the past, fishing with electric shock for example would put you in jail, but now it is permissible even though it has a direct effect on all the aquatic life.

والله هسة إحنا نتمنى من الله و من هاي الحكومة أن تمنع هاي... هدول ال... مني آني و ____. يعني ____ كل الكهرباء إلي ينزله من الحجاج و من الحمرا و التكريت يعني يكتل ويبيد آلاف مألفة من السمك.

I swear, now we hope from God and from this government that they prevent those (methods).... All the electricity they are getting from Al-Hujaj and from Al-Hamra and from Tikrit kills and exterminates thousands upon thousands of fish. (I'm not 100% sure of the second place name he mentions or of the blanks I left. The guy is speaking Iraqi dialect and while I know what he means, I don't get every individual word.)

و بعد تدهور الأوضاع الأمنية و صعوبة نقل السمك من صلاح الدين إلى بغداد و باقي المحافظات ترك الصيادون مهنتهم. لكنهم بدأوا بالعودة من جديد. و بسبب إنحسار المياه و قلة الرعاية للثروة السمكية في البلد أخذوا بإتباع أسوأ الأساليب في الصيد.

And after the deterioration of the security and the difficulty in transporting fish from Salah Al-Deen to Baghdad and the surrounding districts, the fishermen left their profession. But they have begun to return again and because of the dropping water levels and the lack of protection for the wealth of fish, they started to follow the worst of methods in fishing.

رجعنا للزراعة... من بعد هاي اعاد... جت الأمان هنا و صار أمان و صحوة و هاذ فمارسنا عملنا مثل ما كناها بالوقت السابق.

We returned to farming, and after that the peace returned, peace came back and there was a reawakening and such and so we started working like we used to in the past.

و تمثل بحيرة الثرثار اكبر مخازن المياه في العراق. المكان الأمثل لصيد الأسماك. لكن المعاناه تكمن في غلاء اسعار الوقود المشغل لقوارب الصيد مع غلاء اسعار الشباك.

Tharthar Lake represents the biggest reserve of water in Iraq; the best place for fishing. But the problems are hidden in the high prices of fuel the fishing boats use and the high prices of the nets.

تخريب كبير. مو فقط بالأسماك يعني إستخدام المفرقعات و إستخدام المواد السامة في صيد الأسماك إلي رح يلوث المياه. مو هو صح. رح يحصل على سمك و رح يستفاد من عندها لكن من جانب آخر قد يأدي إلى تلوث المياه.

Lots of destruction. Not only for the fish, but using explosives and using poison in fishing is what pollutes the water. It's not right. A man will get fish and will benefit from it, but on the other hand it might lead to pollution.

في النهر خير كثير. و يتباه الصيادون بأحجام الأسماك التي إصطادوها خلال الفترة السابقة من عملهم. و هم يأكدون اليوم أن الأسماك الكبيرة لم يعد لها وجود كما في السابق لأن عمليات الصعق و المتفجرات تقتل ما حولها إضافة إلى الإهمال الحكومية و عدم الدعم للصيادين.

At the river all is well. The fishermen pay attention to the sizes of the fish they have caught during the previous period of their work. And they emphasize that today the big fish are no longer as prevalent as they used to be because the shock operations and the explosives which kill everything around. This is in addition to the negligence of the government and the lack of support for the fishermen.

ربما تكون الأسماك العراقية المستفيد الوحيد من تردي الأوضاع الأمنية فقد غادر الصيادون ديارها و بعد تحسن الأوضاع الأمنية في هذه المناطق, عاد الصيادون. و لكنهم بدأوا يستخدمون الصعق الكهربائي و يلقاء بعض المتفجرات مما أثر على الثروة المائية في المنطقة. عامر الكبيسي. الجزيرة. من محافظة صلاح الدين.

Perhaps the Iraqi fish were the sole beneficiaries of the collapse of security because the fishermen left their homes (the fishes homes) but after the improvement of the security in these regions, returned. But they have begun to use electric shocks and throw explosives which effect the aquatic wealth of the region. Omar Kubaisi. Al-Jazeera. From Salah Al-Deen district.


Vocabulary List:

1. رادعة - This is one of the words I had never heard before. It means "prevention", "deterring", "impeding", "restriction" and things of that nature.
2. هسة - This word is used in the Iraqi and Levantine dialects. It means "now" and is a condensed form of the 2 words "هذه الساعة".
3. يبيد - "to exterminate". This root is used in the word for "pesticides" مبيدات الحشرات.
4. إنحسار - I had to look this word up as I had never seen it before. I thought they were saying إنحصار at first which means a "restriction or limitation", but I didn't think that made sense here. Then I listened again and he's saying a س and not a ص. This word means "a subsiding or drop" as in water levels. It has a lot of other meanings too, but that's really common for Arabic.
5. صحوة - "reawakening". There is a group of armed forces in Iraq that call themselves الصحوة.
6. كمن - "to be hidden"
7. لم يعد - This phrase means "no longer". It's not something that you can logically work out by combining the definition of each word so you just have to memorize that لم and يعد together means "no longer".
8. تردي - At first I thought this word was ترد and that he was just putting a كسرة on the end of it, but I couldn't work out a translation for the sentence. So I thought that it must be another word. I looked up ردى in the Hans Wehr and it turns out that it means "to deteriorate". Even after studying MSA for a long time and feeling like I know the language pretty well I will still find several words, even in a passage like this, that I don't know.