The Vezo are a fishing people who inhabit a coastal belt extending from Intampolo in the south to Morondava in the north of southwest Madagascar. "Vezo" literally means 'the people who fish', but also has been known to mean 'to struggle with the sea'. Vezo do not identify with a particular Malagasy ethnic group but instead with their way of life. Because of their semi-nomadic marine migrations, their population is difficult to determine and has been estimated by counting the dugout canoes, called pirogues, around Madagascar.