Fisheries Authority bans fishing in Red Sea for 7 months

CAIRO – 22 January 2019: The Fisheries Authority banned fishing in the Red Sea from February to September to preserve biological balance, Head of the General Authority for Fish Resources Development (GAFRD) Ayman Ammar told Egypt today Monday.

Ammar added that this decision aims to allow fish production to increase, noting that the Egyptian government exports 60,000 tons of fish.

He stressed that the decision does not affect fish prices in the markets, pointing out that catches from the Red Sea make up only 3 percent of domestic production.

Ammar also said that total fish production from the Red Sea and the Mediterranean amount to 120,000 tons.

In November 2017, Egypt celebrated the inauguration of the largest fish farm in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), located in Berket Ghalioun in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate.

The project was first announced in 2014 with a three-phase plan. The idea of the project is to build a huge fish farm on 12,000 feddans using the latest advanced techniques in the field of fish farming.

The project will help reduce fish imports by about 27 percent and will provide at least 5,000 jobs for the residents of Kafr El-Sheikh as well as the neighboring governorates.