Bonaire’s Masbango Fishermen: A Sustainable Dance with Nature
You might come to Bonaire for the reefs, but what stays with you is watching a family work a baitball from the shoreline with nothing more than a net and a swimmer’s intuition. The Masbango fishermen — named for the bigeye mackerel they harvest — practice a tradition that balances catch with conservation, sharing the take with local families and the island’s predators. Masbangos are the primary food resource for many predators and important to the ecosystem balance, which makes how the fishermen operate just as critical as what they catch. This article covers the tradition itself, how to