Every day, from the mangrove area, the fishermen took their boats to the makeshift shipyard on Los Coquitos beach to be painted. The boats were treated by the fishermen themselves and their families.
Description of project by Boa Mistura
The project has been carried out in Pepillo Salcedo, a small town in the province of Monte Cristi, in the extreme west of the Dominican Republic.
At the foot of the village, the Masacre River, border with Haiti. In front, the Atlantic Ocean, one of the economic livelihoods of this fishing community.
Inside the town, Boa Mistura worked on the fifty-two boats that rest in Estero Balsa.
It is a small beach surrounded by 81 km2 of wetlands, lagoons and mangroves. The most extensive of all the Dominican Republic.
Despite the natural wealth of the area, its situation is one of abandonment. The basic services of electricity, running water and garbage collection are barely covered. The conditions are tremendously precarious for fishermen whose boats have their home here.
That is why it was decided to focus the intervention on this place.
Every day, from the mangrove area, the fishermen took their boats to the makeshift shipyard on Los Coquitos beach to be painted.
They took them by land, towed by neighbors, paddling for more than an hour or lending each other engines.
It was the fishermen themselves and their families who were in charge of sanding the old wood, removing the mollusks from the base of the boats, repairing them with fiberglass and applying a protective primer to each boat. and leave them ready to work.
The boats were painted inspired by the shapes and colors of the Parrotfish.
This species has a special relevance within the Caribbean marine ecosystem.
The Parrotfish feeds on algae that it starts and collects on the coral reefs, thus contributing to the cleanliness and survival of the corals.
In addition, once the algae are removed, defecate the crushed coral in the form of sand. The characteristic white sand of the Caribbean beaches. (A single parrotfish produces about 100 kg of white sand per year).
Despite being a protected species, the illegal fishing of the Parrotfish is endangering the balance of tropical ecosystems.
There were about fifty boats that were painted during the four weeks of the project.
Fifty-two yolas (as they call the boats there) that sail the waters of the Bay of Manzanillo dressed in the skin of the Parrotfish.
A school of fish that carries by flag the conscience and the respect for the marine environment. So fragile and so necessary, not only for the development of the fishing areas, but for the entire planet.
