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Türkmens call this (lake) Manyas. ... In winters…the lake is full of beautiful birds including geese, ducks, swans, cormorants, gulls, pelicans, and others and the Manyas area shakes because of the voices of geese and swans and their wing beats. ...
Settlement History of the Area
The earliest evidence of settlement around Lake Manyas is at Ergili Köyü in the southeast corner of the lake (Akurgal 1955; Bakır 1989). Excavations at Daskyleion [1] have revealed a frontier settlement built by Persian Satraps around the 7th century BC. ...
According to the oral history of the villagers, the northern side of the lake was only settled in the past 100 years. By contrast, archival records show that the southern side of the lake had several relatively large settlements during Ottoman times. The quote at the beginning of this chapter is from the Seyahatname of Evliya Çelebi, a 17th century Ottoman traveler who traveled from Bursa to Gönen along the south side of the lake in 1658 and visited Bolcaağaç (Bölceağaç today) a village that is still there. Çelebi stated that:
High reeds grow around the lake. ... It seems likely that at this bazaar, different products from the Lake were sold but other than what Çelebi wrote, we know very little about use of the lake. ... Kocagöl (Kazak Köyü), a village situated on the southwest corner of the lake, has perhaps the most interesting ethnic structure. This was the earliest settlement established close to the lake [2], and was the home of Orthodox Christian Cossacks for more than two centuries. These people came here from the Kuban region of southern Russia, migrating first to the delta of Danube [3] (Evdokimova 1999) It was the Cossacks who introduced commercial fishing to the lake somewhere around the 1780s, possibly practicing a way of life from their original homeland (Andrews 1989). ...
The Cossacks also established a second important fishing village, Bereketli, on the northern shore of the lake in the early 1900s. ...
Most of the northern shore of the lake was settled as a result of the immigration of Ottoman Muslims from the Balkans [5]. ...
Three major migration flows took place from the Balkans to Anatolia that have affected the Lake Manyas region. ...
The first settlement established by migrants from the Balkans is Sığırcı Atik [8], a village on the northeast corner of the lake just east of the national park (Figure 2). ... The road symbolizes the long-lasting relationship between the village and the lake. ... The Pomak village of Bereketli on the northern shores of the lake. ... Kabardines settled around the lake as a result of this migration event. ... They came from Kabardine in the northern Caucasus to Bursa in 1900 and then to Lake Manyas in 1902. ...
Two communities, Manav villages, Külefli and Çepni, are located west of Bereketli away from the lake on hilltops. They are exclusively farming villages and have more agricultural lands than any other village around the lake. ...
However, the constantly changing and diverse character of the area created a lack of community cohesion in the Lake Manyas area. ...
Local Livelihood Practices
Fishing
According to Evliya Çelebi, the lake was very rich in fish species including trout and pike. ... When Turkey was established in 1923, the Iltizam system remained in force and it is still used today to manage fishery resources of the lake. In this system the lake is leased to an individual mültezim through a competitive bidding process for a certain period of time, usually two years. ... The mültezim would hire a security guard to protect the lake. By custom and by law, a lake dweller can catch fish for his or her own consumption, but cannot sell them in markets or other places. Protecting their assets became a major challenge to the mülltezims, as they had to hire people with horses to ride around the lake and inspect every boat. ... However, there is no evidence to suggest that it has always had high commercial value, at least prior to 1877 when migration from the Balkans to the Lake Manyas area began. ... People in Bereketli, the main fishing village on the lake today, suggest that they were the only community dependent on fishing until the Mübadele Muhacirs arrived from Greece. ... Six of the immigrants were still alive in 1999 and none of them has actually fished in the lake. ... However, earlier refugees from the Caucasus and the Balkans had re-settled around the lake, occupying most of the agricultural lands. ... Today, Bereketli is the largest fishing village on the lake with almost 80 percent of the villagers owning boats, or working with boat owners. ... He had a high school education (regarded as very educated for a villager at the time) and tried to get the Pomaks from Bereketli to start a co-op, lease the lake, and work for themselves instead of mültezims. ... In 1969, fishermen from other villages became members of the co-op and started working the lake on their behalf. ...
Mültezims did not like this situation and tried to prevent local co-ops from renting the lake as mültezims. For example, when the first local co-op was established in 1968 and rented the lake [17], one of the mültezims established a new co-op with only seven members and sought permission from the government to join the bidding process. ... The mültezim appealed the case to a higher court, and the court decided that it was illegal to rent the lake without bidding. Following the courts decision, a new bidding process was undertaken in 1971 and another mültezim, Hakkı Eşeoğlu from Afyon, in western Turkey, rented the lake by paying 445,000 Turkish Lira, two-and-one- half times the price of the previous bid. ... When bidding was reopened, a former fisherman from Bereketli who had migrated to Istanbul paid 951,000 Turkish Lira and rented the lake. ... Although this claim was rejected by the courts, the former fisherman gave up the idea of renting the lake. ... Under this new law the lake was rented to the local co-op for 445,000 Turkish Lira in 1971 (Yaşbek 1987). ... The lake fisheries were developed more intensively and brought considerable prosperity to the community [18]. ...
This arrangement ended in 1978 when the government passed a new co-op law, requiring that all the villages around the lake had to be organized as separate co-ops. ... As a result, seven new co-ops were started and formed a union to organize fishing in the lake. ... The political views of the majority of the villagers were opposed to the governments at the time, and to protest the government decisions, they did not fish in the lake for a year between 1978 and 1979 [20] (Yaşbek 1987).
The seven co-ops were established with government subsidies and were entitled to long-term, low-interest loans to purchase equipment to operate on the lake. These seven co-ops formed a union and leased the lake for a period of one year. When the period ended in 1979, the Bereketli co-op rented the lake again. ... During this time, not only was the union dissolved but also the individual co-ops from other villages were broken up, with the result that only two remain operating on the lake. These two are the first co-op in the lake area, the Bereketli co-op, and the Eski Sığırcı co-op.
Today the two co-ops still operate the lake and some fishermen from other villages are due paying members of these co-ops. Because the amount of fish caught declined gradually and there is a strong cooperation between these two co-ops, nobody from outside competes to rent the lake. For the past 10 years or so, the two co-ops have jointly leased the lake and shared the rent according to their catch. ... To avoid raising the rent during past several years, only the Bereketli co-op leased the lake and the Eski Sığırcı co-op worked under them by paying annual dues. ... When fishing business was in its zenith in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Co-op Union maintained several buildings, ice houses, and storage facilities in Koyunkaya, a place away from any settlement on the northern shore of the lake. ...
Fishing Practices
IRIP
The traditional method of fishing in the lake was ırıpcılık, introduced by the Cossacks. ... A group of people called tayfa combine their labor and equipment to get the most out of the lake. ...
This way of fishing, ırıpcılık, was practiced for decades in at least three villages around the lake. Before boats with engines were introduced to the lake, they moved by man or wind power. ... At night the crew put into shore, ate dinner, slept, and returned to the lake early next morning. ...
Until the mid-1980s, this was the major way of commercial fishing on the lake and it shaped the lifestyles of those living around the lake. ... One possible explanation for this is that the lake is getting shallower due to rapid sedimentation and the deeper nets are no longer necessary. ...
UZATMA
If the fanyalı nets are taken to the lake and left there overnight, this is called uzatma, meaning extended. ... Sometimes if they have tasks in the village, they take their nets and clean them on the way back to village, then return them to the lake during the late afternoon before it gets dark. ...
PINTER
A pinter is a basket-like device that is commonly used around the lake. ...
People who live further away from the shoreline come to the lake only once every day or two use this device. After placing the pinter somewhere in the lake, all they have to do is check it occasionally. ... The Ministry of Forestry General Directorate of Protection and Inspection in Ankara has determined legal fishing periods for the lake since 1971. Unfortunately the Directorates regulations are very general and do not take into account the specific conditions of different lake and coastal fisheries. ...
This does not mean, however, that fishermen around the lake observe the banned times. Particularly during the past several years, fishing regulations seem to have been increasingly ignored, so that fishing a year-round around the lake includes particular fish species that are protected. ... Although they are aware of the ban and accept that what they do might be harmful to species in the lake, their reaction is summarized in one fishermans statement: "If I do not catch it somebody else will. ... These numbers, if dependable, suggest that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, 500-750 tons of fish came from the lake each year, and 100-150 tons of crayfish (Yaşbek 1987). ... Evliya Çelebi mentions trout in the lake but there is no mention of it in modern literature, and the local fishermen do not remember ever taking that species.
Kerevit (Istakoz), Crayfish (Astacus fluviatilis) probably has been economically the most valuable species in the lake. In fact, the lake became famous for crayfish because their white legs them a gourmet delicacy (they are supposedly tastier than other kinds) (Yaşbek 1989). ... At that time a disease was found in the shellfish of the lake and production of crayfish collapsed. Before 1985, the crayfish harvest produced almost 10 times more income for lake fishermen than the fish (Yaşbek 1987). ... However, their numbers declined dramatically and they are now rare in the lake. ... This fish is the largest species in the lake and can be as large as 400 pounds each (Balık 1989). ... These species live in the bottom parts of the lake. ... In a typical eutrophic lake, because of the algae in the hypolimnion the sunlight cannot reach the bottom part of the lake, preventing oxygen-producing microorganisms from doing so. ...
Turna (Exos lucius), pike, is another carnivorous species in the lake. Its diet depends on live prey and its presence, together with birds, is very important for the regulation of small and economically valueless fish species, which have increased in the lake significantly in recent years. ... In the 1960s and 1970s when carp was abundant in the lake it was exported to Syria and Lebanon and produced a good income for local fishermen. ... When carp catches declined in the early 1980s the co-op in Eski Sığırcı decided to introduce young carp to the lake, and purchased 250,000 carp from fish farms, but the experiment did not succeed (Mustafa Ateş, Personal Interview 1999).
Filise (Caspialosa maeotica) is one of the most important small fish typical of the lake. Normally, they live in the sea and migrate to the lake during the spawning time through the rivers Susurluk and Karadere. ... In fact, the sheatfish, a predator species, regulated the number of carp in the lake. So the excessive fishing of the sheatfish left a large number of carp and other small fish in the lake. In addition, the small fish in the lake were not caught because of low market value. ... It is one important reason why locals would like to get more birds to the lake and, indeed, protect them.
An alternative explanation for the decline of fish with high market value is sedimentation within the lake.
Approximate Word count = 11130
Approximate Pages = 44.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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