DAMMAM: The Fishermen's Society in the Eastern Province has called on the Ministry of Agriculture to urgently intervene to protect the hamour (grouper) fish from extinction - by acting against fishermen who are using banned nets and traps. The society's members said they feared that the species would disappear in a short time if nothing is done. 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, according to Dawood Sa'eed, who is in-charge of the Marine Sector at the society. Sa'eed expressed astonishment at the Ministry of Agriculture regularly approving fishermen's applications to obtain 700 fish traps (Qaraqeer) 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. 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. Ja'far Al-Safwani, Deputy Chairman of the society, said that certain destructive fishing practices, mainly overfishing, are the main reasons for the decrease in the fish population over recent years. He pointed out that the use of three-layer fishing nets, which are banned internationally, contributes to the destruction of small fish. This is because these kinds of nets trap all sizes of fish. He stressed that this is destroying the ecosystem needed for the breeding of hamour fish. He called on the authorities to lay down tighter controls to protect fish threatened with extinction. He said fish are a national resource that must be protected by enacting the necessary regulations and legislation.
