Middle East – Saudi Arabia
may limit the access to the sea faciliti es and, consequently, that may represent a threat to commercial aquaculture. ‘It’s a new thing for them and they are using a
conservati ve approach to try to keep it as much under control as possible.’ He said the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Defence are discussing new guide- lines, but he hopes once the coastguard gets more used to the evolving industry its atti tude will change. Conservati on groups are not a problem and
there is no evident confl ict with fi shermen – ‘but it may arise’ said Cardia. They mostly operate small boats and there is over-capacity, though there is not enough data on stock levels in the Red Sea. Cardia and his colleagues have applied their
feasibility model for the fi shermen’s communi- ty of Thuwal, north of Jeddah, a co-operati ve
“Aquaculture properly managed has a
limited impact on the environment
46 ”
of about 150 fi shermen, who are now going through the process of getti ng an aquaculture licence. ‘They probably won’t be directly involved in running a farm, but we could support them in doing this, if there’s any need of training. It would be excellent to do this but for the ti me being we hope they will get the licence - the process is sti ll not quick – and, more important, fi nd funding. ‘Aquaculture properly managed has a limited impact on the environment; the Red Sea is a unique environment and if we had the chance to get fi sh from aquaculture we could maybe reduce the fi shing eff ort.’ While shrimp is sti ll the main species reared,
in volume and by value, the other main cultured species are non-nati ve species, such as gilthead sea bream, introduced by the Israelis in the 1980s, and barramundi, introduced in the 1990s. The latt er has become the focus for the Nati onal Aquaculture Group (Naqua), which was producing 25,000 tonnes of shrimp a year unti l white spot disease in 2011 wiped out produc- ti on completely. The shrimp sector switched in 2013 from the
nati ve Indian white prawn (Penaeus indicus) to the whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei),
another non-nati ve species more resistant to disease thanks to selecti ve breeding, and in two years has recovered to such an extent that the outlook for 2015 is bett er than before the crisis. But barramundi is causing more excitement
at the moment. Cage culture can be developed very quickly, said Cardia, but the issue will be how to sell the fi sh. The advantage of both this and sea bream is
that there is a market already developed and there is also an internati onal market that might support additi onal producti on. ‘But you have to be careful that the costs of
producti on, plus transportati on, for instance, to Europe, can compete with the very low pro- ducti on costs of Turkey and Greece and Tunisia, which farm sea bream at a very competi ti ve producti on cost,’ he said. His experience in the sea bream and sea bass
market in Italy around 2000-2002 was ‘terrible’. ‘They were increasing the producti on in
Greece and the market was fl ooded with prod- uct at prices below the producti on costs we had in Italy. You are not producing bott les, you can’t stock the fi sh indefi nitely, and when you reach your maximum stoking density you have to sell it to reduce the biomass in the cages and pay your suppliers.’
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
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