Mahdia Governorate
Mahdia shows niche partitioning: 410,812 residents across fishing, aquaculture (sea bass), olive oil, silk weaving, and tourism, maintaining diversified resilience on 2,966 km² coastal terrain.
Mahdia Governorate exemplifies niche partitioning in coastal economies—this 2,966 km² region with 410,812 residents (2014 census) has divided its ecological space into complementary extraction systems: fishing and aquaculture (sardines, mackerel, sea bass), olive cultivation and milling, silk weaving, and beach tourism. Unlike industrial monocultures that dominate other regions, Mahdia maintained diversified production—fish processing factories operating alongside traditional weaving workshops, olive groves adjacent to resort hotels. This portfolio strategy provides resilience: when textile sectors struggle (as during COVID's impact on clothing exports), fishing revenues continue; when drought threatens olives, tourism arrivals compensate. The city of Mahdia itself functions as a quiet port town of 40,000, its modest scale reflecting sustainability rather than the aggressive growth patterns visible in larger Tunisian cities. Pharmaceutical contamination recently detected along Mahdia's coastline reveals the cost of intensive aquaculture—antibiotic resistance spreading through marine ecosystems. The governorate operates like a tidal flat: multiple species coexisting through temporal and spatial separation, each occupying a distinct niche in the daily rhythm of the coastal economy.