JIZAN: With the annual Parrotfish Festival due to officially kick off Thursday, the first schools of what is known locally as the “Hareed” fish have already appeared off the shores of Jizan this week, several days early. The parrotfish is currently a best seller on local markets in Farasan with prices for the larger “Khadhari” variety going for up to SR60 per kilogram. According to Muhammad Zaidan, a former head of the Parrotfish Festival's Fishing Committee, the fish found at market this week is the “seasonal Hareed”. “That type of fish appears every year on April 17,” Zaidan said. He described the annual celebration of the brightly colored fish as having become an “international event”. “It has something different than other festivals and is particularly attractive to both tourists and investors in the Farasan Islands,” he said. Ibrahim Miftah, a well-known Farasan poet and organizer of the first ever Parrotfish Festival, said Monday that the parrot fish began to appear in the islands' waters a couple of days earlier and that large schools had been placed in the designated areas netted off for the festival. “I could tell they had arrived by the smell of the sea,” Miftah said. “The odor only appears when the parrotfish is in the area. When it appears, fishermen on the various islands work together to cordon off the schools of fish and direct them into the netted-off areas. The whole process concludes with the celebration of the festival.” The festival sees young and old go down to the shore, singing the traditional fishermen's songs, he said. “When the Sheikh of the Fishermen gives the sign, everyone starts gathering fish from the waters,” he said. The Parrotfish Festival, which this year is scheduled to last five days, is part of the programs of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, and has the patronage of Prince Muhammad Bin Nasser Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Jizan.
