Saudi urged to protect hamour fish

Saudi Arabia needs to take urgent measures to stop malpractices by fishermen and save its hamour fish wealth from extinction, a local daily said Saturday.

The Fishermen’s Society in the Eastern Province urged the Ministry of Agriculture to intervene to protect the hamour (grouper) fish by acting against fishermen who are using banned nets and traps, Okaz said.

“The society’s members said they feared that the species would disappear in a short time if nothing is done,” the paper added.

It said the internationally-banned items, which are discarded at sea, trap all sizes of fish, preventing them from finding food and breeding – and therefore destroying the fragile ecosystem.

“A single boat has 600 to 700 fish traps, which the boat owner gets rid of annually. Therefore, 1,000 boats working in the different quays in the Eastern Province dump 700,000 fish traps annually,” it said, quoting Dawood Sa’eed, who is in-charge of the Marine Sector at the society.

Sa’eed said he was surprised that the Ministry of Agriculture is regularly approving fishermen’s applications to obtain 700 fish traps annually without obtaining information on the old fish traps that have been dumped at sea.

He demanded that fines should be imposed on boats that dump fish traps haphazardly, the paper added.

“Sa’eed referred to regulations in force in Oman, where boats are not allowed to get fish traps unless they remove the old ones from the sea. This has helped to protect the environment and prevent fish species from becoming extinct.”