In countries near the sea is normal to found a lot of kinds of dry fish The inhabitants use that also like a chewing candy and you don't need a fridge to store that food. You can find also dry fish in African countries ( the fishes are hanged on the beach and the sun dries the lines of fishes the small for us is very strong )
sorry for that comment, but it's not so weird to see some people eat that kind of fish ( In Europe we have dried and salted cod used in gastronomic cooking in Portugal, Italy, France, etc ( Baccala , Baccaliou,..Brandade de morue etc..