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United Sta t e s Department of the I nt.erior, J . A. Krug , Se cr etar y Fish and Wildlife Service, Albert M. Day, Direct or

Fishery Leafl et 310

Washington, D, C,

PR ODUCTI ON OF EDIBLE FISH n THE RED~

By Enoch S. Duncan 11

June 1948 ~.

Befor e World War II, fishing ar eas i n the Red Sea a long the Egypt i an coast Vler e exploit ed by I talian commercial f i shermen oper ating between fifty and sixty motor-power ed b oat s in addi t i on to an i ndeter mi nate number of Egyptian sailing boats employing compe.r at i vel y primi t i ve methods , Unt i l 1938, the control of these fisheries', as \"lell a s t hose of t ho Mediter r anean coast, was in the hands of the Egyptian Coastguard divis ion ; at that t i me the Fisherie s Department was separ ated and annexed t o the Nuni str y of Commerce and Industry in an eff ,ort to i mprove the t echnique of exploit at ion of fi s her ­i es, All conunercia l fi shing i s noVi r estricted by a system of licensi ng of individu a l boats for the ann ounced dual pur pose of t he prote ction~ of Egyp­tian nationals in the enterprise and of cons ervation ne ce s s itat ed by what Fisherie s 'Department officials cons i der a natura l paucity of fi sh in Egypt i an waters. 'The validity of t he l atter principl e i s sub j ect to questi on, how­ever, since it is generally admitted t hat i nsuff icient statistical data exist for an accurat e as s essment of t he fi sh r es ource s, particularly of t he Red Sea .

( a ) Kinds ~ fish available , and pr odu ction figm~e s,

It is roughly estimat ed by Egyptian Fisher i e s Department officials that 40,000 tons of domestic f i sh troduction Gr e consumed annually in Egypt. Of thi s t ot al, 25% r e pre sents marine co.t ch , 60% l ake production , while 15% is t aken from the river wat ers, i. e ., the Nile and i ts t ribut ar i es . Red Sea fi s hing grounds fUrni sh about 4 ,000 tons of t he marine tot a l with a valu.e at l anding points of L.E, 200,000 (L.E , 1 equals ~ L •• ll). This figure is ne ce ss a.,rily an estimat e since ver y little s t etistical i nf or mat ion of an accurat e nature now exists in the file s of t he Fisher i e s Depar tr.1ent; however, officia ls h ope to r emedy this deficiency by r equi r i ng the ma i ntenance of fishing charts and systematic r eporting of cat ches by ma s t er s of licensed boats, ' .

Import and export st atistics on movement of fish pr oduce in 1946 as issued by t he Egyptian Government ar e given bel ow. I t may be noted that Egypt i mports over . 10,006 t ons from all sourcos whi l e exporting , principall y in the for m of supply to . ships ' s t ores, be t ween 500 and ·600 t ons . The total fish production and net i mport f i gure t hus gi ves. Egypt a per capita consump­tion offish and ot her s ea f ood ealculated at l es s than ' j kilograms per

, persori '~ "a:' 'very low fIgUre ' 'c'ompar ed with United St at e s consumption of about 12 kilograms and the .Un~ted Kingdom figure of 28 kilograms. Expans ion of pre s ent production from both inland and marine operat i on is , ther efore , con­sider ed extremely important by Egyptian offic i als,

il Third Secret ary, American Embassy, Ca iro, Egypt. Re port No. 42 , Februar y -' --12, 1948.

5 Qua y V <.. lu ,

K. G.

i ed ok d 432 , 274 44,800

HIT o ~d S eked

941 , 951 101 , 651

her C rie 1, 643, 929 132,887

S d es ",1 ed , Dric'd 8 eked 656 58

Fi h, 8'01 cd , Dried S ,eke

T key 75, 612 8 , 527

er C ries 6, 035 683

T le , Fres 8ul cd ar Co ked 4, 610 402

• T 1 t.s 3, 096, 067 289 ,108

x s f Ir.\ a ed ; r ch nd i e

FO" , Cru ~ cc s & ~ar iluscs 4, 894 804

0

r Fif

P 1 •. inc 735 24

F e 505, 741 99 , 745

C 4 15

~ d 1, 544 271

ied 01: d

0 5 ci i d

i 2, 318 469

c 1,838

25,651 102, 3 2

.,

Trade Movement Bet ween EgYpt iill£ Sudan 1946

Fish Salted, Dried or Smoked

(not spBcified)

Other Articles

Total

Exports

Fish, Crustaceans and Molluses

7,072,528

3,91.1

7,076,349

14,776

150, 156

275

150 , 431

1, 200

The prinCipal kinds of fi,sh cnught in cOmrlerci al qu~nt i tiG ~ in t.he Red Sea ar e s ole, sardines (unusually l ar ge), l Brgc and small gray mullet , macker el, her r ing, trout, ~oup de mer, r ock cod and Red Sea sal mon (Ar abic : Dirnk), t unny, ~ca bas s , snapper s . Large shrimp, cr abs &nd cr ayfish ar e t aken in sizable quantities, ~ut no lobster s nr e r eported. Shar ks ar e frequently t al\en. ·

To give a more compl et e pi~ture , t he princi~~l f amilies and out stcnd­ing species of f i sh f ound in the Red Sed , of both commercial and scient ific inter est are as follows:

-FR INCIPAL FAMILIES AND FISH FOP.rvlS FCUND IN THE RED SEA 1/ ~- ------

Nurse Sharks (Orectolobidae ) - Live in sh~llmv wat er, of t en near shore , and r el?-ch ae; much as 15 f eet . i n l ength •.

"Mnn-eater" - Eulamisko - 13 species ar~ .· r eport ed f r om t he Red Sea Hcumner-hend Sharks (S phyrnidae ) . . Rays : Repr esented by l arge gi ntar r ny (RhYnchobaters dj addens i s ) ,

el ect ric r ays (Jarpedinidae ), sting r ayS (Dnsyatidne ), ee.gl e r ays (Myliobatidae), devil r ays (Mobulidae ).

Herrings : Plentifully represent ed by t ar poh (Elopi dae ), bone f ish (Albulidae), milkfishes (Chanidae), - t rue herring (ClupEl i dae ) , found in i mmense schools wi t hSardinel la tunny be i ng a typi cal exampl e . .

AnchOVies (Engraulid? e with anchoriel la· heterololes and Thris socles boelama being char acteristic).

The Wolf herring .(Chirocentrus dorale ) r eaches a · l arge size . Eels - Represented by pike eels. (Muroenesocidae), snake eels. ( Ophichthyidae) and moraYD. (E chidnidae ) Eel pont cats (Plotosidae) Green gars (BelonidaB) ar e (Hemiramphidae ) in form.

and l izar d f i shes (Synedontidae) ar e f ound. r eported in 7 speci es ·and bal aos . .:

2 species of flying fishes (ExoCostidae ) ar e r eported .

17 This brief listing has been compiled ·from t he art-icle by l'Ilr . Henry 7. Fowler (Academy of Nat ural Sciences of Philadel phia ) , "The Fishes of t he Red Sea," Sudan Angling, Vol. 1, No.1,. J anuary 1946, Khar toum, Sudan , pp. 41-64. Also of consi der able inter est" in t his same edit i on of Sudan A gling is an article by Mr. G. M. Hancock, "S ome Red Sea Experiences , " pp. 9-17, in which specific descriptions of s ome of the Red Sea f i shi ng areas ar e gi en together with comments r egarding f ood and game f ish. 3

F ( _cur e c id e ) a T1y TC T e en ed

3 s . cie s . 'J 10 cies .

a l h gh s 11 i i e

aTe of ad r e si z •

y Dolphin (Cary-

li . ed d u out 38 specie s .

s . cie s . cie ; s o e qu i te l ar e .

cie . c i e r port d .

species .

id 0) .

ci s .

e) , 20 5 cia .

s ci s .

8 r T 1 r sh s cie r

(bY '( Met-hOOs :2! Fishing ~ Types of Gear' Used .

Under a strict licensing system, eighteen motor trawlers of betv18cn 100 and 160 harsep~er are presently operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez from Egyptian parts. These boats operate , vrlth l arge nets for the catch of ground fish" but this particular operation is r estricted to the Gulf of Suez because .of roo.gh coral formations in the 'mciin Red Sea area . Fishing further afield by these boats is confined to 'the use of drift nets and trawl ' lines bf aboo.t 2000 meters length with spa ced hooks.

There are 500 s a iling boats of the compar at.ively primitive Red Sea or dhoVl type licensed to operate. These boats fish with a variety of equip­ment consisting of seines, drift nets and trawl hook lines of varying length. Gear for both the trawlers and sailing, b0ats is made locally .

The operation of both trawlers and s a iling' boats must be consider ed as primitive and inefficient. "' Refrigeration facilit.ie s at s ea are limited to

, a feVi of, the trawlers with a resultant limitati:on in time s pent at good fi s h­ing grounds. Furthermore!," no refriger ation' uhits ar e in operation, in Sue z , the main landing point for catche s. One plant was, however, built by t he former Societe ~ poor ~ Pecheries, ~.!.~., and could be r e paired for use for fish storage tol(3vel the supply. At, present, , l ack of. such ndequate marketing aids cause fluctuations in fish price s in Ca iro, for example , from L.E. 50 per oke to L.K. 100 even from day to day.

In 1936, an experimental fishing voyage nas made by a Greek vessel, the ,§,.§,.Miranda" and was rewarded with unusually largo catches from the use of drag nets and long trawl lines . At that time a Greek ichthiologist , supervising the Miranda's operation, expr essed t he opinion that a ver y sat i s ­factory business organization would cons i st of three to four fishing motor boats having refrigerator 'capacity of 15 to 20 cubic meters nnd be i ng equipred with 6 to 8 fi s hing barks 'for two men each~ The motor boats would service the barks for food and supplies and r eceive catc'h for stora ge 9' It W8,S

estimated that such an organization could l and between 140,000 e.nd 168 , 000 prunds of fish per month exclusive of probable large shark cntche s .

(c) Commercia l Fishery Enterpris e s .

The operation of the Red Sea fi shing fleet is pr e sentl y confined to individual entre preneurs and small partnership mvner ship of individuul boats . The l argest individually own ed group consists of 4 boats , and there arc a fevl groups of 2 or 3 boats. As before mentioned , there are 18 motor t r aw'lers which carry crews up to 14 and 500 s a iling boats e.vera gi ng 5 per crew operat ­ing in the Red Sea . These numbers may be compe.r ed with 67 motor tra'll er s , 65 small motor boats, and 2,000 s a iling boats licensed to oper ate from Alexandria in the Mediterranean delta shelf area . The mot or trmll er s us ed repre sent an aver a ge investment of L.E. 8,000 to L.E . 10 , 000 each , c,ga inst which monthly catche s ar c sold for an aver age of L.E .800 .

An attempt to organize a l arge operating compcmy was made sever a l years ago in the form of the Societe Misr pour les Pecheries , § .~ . ~., but thd­venture f ailed through l ack of effe ctive and inter ested rnan~gement . The Fisheries Department has expressed hope that sufficient ca pi tal to promo e the organization of a well managed and scientifically oper at ed co rcia l venture may be inter ested in Red Sea fi shery develo ment , but r e por s t < t

5

oz.

Cr

,

thi~ field . That department is st f d 10pm nt \'li.th pra 0 in fishing r sources .

or ized . There ere only 3 fish nl"'>T"' '''' ati e ly 1 sc Ie for distr ibution

e s e s trnnsport and sends D. supply to n s ever age 2 tons of fish r d y but amount to

in .,hich good cat che s ar 1 ded . Lack of \'lell organized distribution m thods a s well c use the consider abl price fluctu t ion flen -

he Sue z l andin point is limit ed to tinning of sc l e ur ing the sardine season d to sal in ,

, a i s hen larger thDn usual volume is l anded . r t , r e ined e ly in 1948 to advise the Egyptian

h

ossibilitie s of expansion of Egypt ' s canning industry, c ic 'bility of utilizing Red Sea fish for

r o

ts

some of the small sa iling s fr quently. The cre ... .,s

y a sed on c percent g of the sale of r ots r e ce ive a mininurn wage r gulnt I

Li hts plus , in most ins nnc s , additioncl

" l so ish d '11 h f ood supplies such a s flour , BUg , il , cc o by th t 0 mel' s . Gener lly the standar d of Ii lllg

only 511 h l y ove of he aver a gricultur 1 worker of