Fishing at Egypt's Lake Nasser to resume in May after rehabilitation break

CAIRO – 9 May 2022: Aswan Governor Ashraf Atteya stated on Monday that fishing at Lake Nasser will resume on May 15, after the conclusion of the annual rehabilitation break that began on March 15.

The annual rehabilitation break was introduced three years ago to protect the resources of the lake from depletion, and maintain the ecosystem.  

The governor noted that the number of fishermen, who have licenses to carry out fishing activities at the lake, is over 9,000, and that they use a total of 3,082 fishing boats.

Atteya said that the production size of the last fishing season prior to the break amounted to 28,000 tons. That is given the size of the lake, which spans over 1.25 million feddans, and has shores extending on a total of 7,000 kilometers.  

The Aswan governor highlighted that the fishermen will be using four ports that are those of the High Dam, Garf Hussein, Abou Simbel, and Toshki. He added that three fish seed incubators are being implemented at the areas of Sahari, Garf Hussein, and Toshki.

Egypt is now producing 92 million fish seeds, and has been able to improve Tilapia breeds. Further, Egypt works on introducing new technology that increases the productivity of fisheries, which is currently 5 to 15 tons per feddan.  

The General Authority for Fish Resources Development announced in April that the number of fish seeds planned to get introduced in the Nile River and lakes for FY2021/2022 is 47 million.

The breeds of those are Nile Tilapia, Grass Carp, and Silver Carp. However, the one million fish seeds - out of planned 5.25 million - placed in Fayoum's Wadi Al Rayan belong to the Tobara breed. Such Tobara fish seeds were produced by Abou Al Shaqaf incubator in Beheira, and another incubator affiliated with Lake Akyad in Sharqia.