Brief Summary about Aquaculture in Egypt

doi:10.15406/jamb.2014.01.00003

Journal of

eISSN: 2378-3184

Aquaculture & Marine Biology

Editorial Volume 1 Issue 1

Brief Summary about Aquaculture in Egypt

Hagar sedeek Hassan Dighiesh

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Associate Researcher, The National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Egypt

Correspondence: Hagar sedeek Hassan Dighiesh, Associate Researcher, The National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, P.O Box 43511, Suez, A.R.E, Egypt, Tel + 20 (062) 33 66 374

Received: November 16, 2014 | Published: November 17, 2014

Citation: Hagar Dighiesh HS (2014) Brief Summary about Aquaculture in Egypt. J Aquac Mar Biol 1(1): 00003. DOI: 10.15406/jamb.2014.01.00003

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Editorial

Around the whole world, Fish are considered as the cheapest source of animal protein. Egypt has many Fish sources and water area about 14 million feddans but the local production cannot cover the domestic consumption for that the country went toward the import to cover this shortage. In 2011 Egypt imported about 182 thousand tonnes of fish which represent about 13% from total production and Due to the limited fresh water resources the country policies now is focus on the Aquaculture of commercial marine species of fish such as (grouper - mullet - meager - perch – sole) and marine invertebrates such as (shrimp - sea cucumber - shellfish).

According to FAO, Aquaculture is considered the largest source of fish supply in Egypt, almost 65% from the total fish production with 99% from private production. The most used Aquaculture systems in Egypt is the semi-intensive systems and most of farms are located in Delta region. 14 different species of finfish and two species of crustacean are cultured in Egypt. Ten are native and six are introduced species. The native species are: Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus), North African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), flathead grey mullet (Mugil cephalus), thin lip mullet (Liza ramada), blue spot mullet (Valamugil seheli), European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), meagre (Argyrosomus regius) and penaeid shrimp. The introduced species are: common carp (Cyprinus carpio), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) and the giant river freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii).

Here I can summarized the development of aquaculture in Egypt by decades

i. 1930s -1960s the beginning of modern aquaculture “for research on Common Carp” 1961s semi intensive system for commercial purposes.
ii. 1970s the real beginning of aquaculture development.
iii. 1980s production jumped from 7000 to 45 000 tons, building hatcheries, fish farms and fry collection station.
iv. 1984s Tilapia cultured in cages in “River Nile” waters and Common carp cultured in rice fields.
v. 1990s the beginning of marine species culture such as seabass, gilthead seabream, sole, meagre and penaeide shrimp.
vi. Mid of 1990s beginning of aquaculture investments and production was (17.5–30 tons /hectare).
vii. End of 1990s integrated desert agriculture and aquaculture.

Figure 1 The chart below Reported aquaculture production in Egypt from 1950-2010, FAO Fishery.

Statistic

Egypt considered as the first producers within Africa continents in 2012 with 1,485,367 tonnes which represent about 68.5% from total production of the continent and the ninth between world countries moreover there are many problems that stop the predictable development of aquaculture such as

i. Shortage in Fries
ii. Fish meal and its high prices
iii. Fertilizers
iv. Pollution
v. Non planned projects
vi. Legislation
vii. The far distance between the academic research and real field problems

Now the government affords many of national programs that bind between the academic research and field applications to enhance the development of aquaculture and re-write new laws and legislation that can help investors more than past.