Iraqi fishermen resort to fish farming as problems mount

Record ID: 108371

  • Title: Iraqi fishermen resort to fish farming as problems mount
  • Date: 5th April 2016
  • Summary: BASRA, IRAQ, (RECENT) (REUTERS) FISHERMAN IN SMALL BOAT SAILING IN WATER FISHERMAN THROWING NET VARIOUS OF FISH FARMING PONDS IN RIVER VARIOUS OF FLOATING FISH CAGES IN RIVER RED RIVER FISH PONDS FISHERMEN MOVING NET FROM FISH PONDS FISH IN NET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FISH FARMER, MAJID KADHIM, SAYING: "Kuwait is controlling the territorial water and is denying Iraqi fisherme
  • Embargoed: 20th April 2016 11:18
  • Keywords: Iraq Basra fishing fisherman farming fish farms
  • Location: BASRA, IRAQ
  • City: BASRA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014C3AD79
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Iraqi fisherman in Basra say increasing hardships in their lifelong trade are forcing them to dock their boats and resort to fish farming.
    Illegal fishing has reduced the numbers of fish, while fish farmer Majid Kadhim says Kuwaiti coast guard patrolling the waters of Shatt al-Arab harass Iraqi fisherman.
    "Kuwait is controlling the territorial water and is denying Iraqi fishermen access and sometimes it detains or even imprisons them. And because of current policies, government policies, which are unfortunately weak, they haven't provided enough protection to the fishermen and to our territorial waters. Therefore, most fishermen have resorted to fish farming using floating cages or by other means," he said.
    Control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, a stretch of water between Iran and Iraq that opens out into the Gulf, was one of the main reasons for the costly and bitter war between the two countries that lasted through most of the 1980s.
    To make matters worse for fishermen, the water level has dropped due to Turkish construction of dams on the Tigris River.
    "The south in general used to supply Iraq and neighbouring countries with fish that have started to become extinct the gattan (barbus xanthopterus) and shabbut (barbus grypus) and khishni (liza abu). Now these kinds of fish have become very hard to find, therefore we have started to farm fish. We started with the carp and we are also carrying out research at Basra University to cultivate the gattan and khishni," added Kadhim.
    To support inland and marine fisheries, three privately-owned hatchery and laboratories have been opened recently in the city of Basra in cooperation with the city's Department of Agriculture and Science Centre at Basra University.
    The laboratories supply fish farms with fish seeds and feed and provide guidance to private fish hatchery.
    The laboratories also funded pilot projects to test cage culture in inland waters bodies as well as a closed recirculating system and modern hatcheries to improve fish stocks enhancement.
    "Our fish has a taste that differs from imported ones, which makes it highly demanded. So, if companies like us or fish farming projects supply Basra markets with 300 tonnes a season, we won't need to import fish and can keep hard currency within the country," said Mohamed Jassim, aquaculture specialist at Basra University.
    Despite this, Jassim said, domestic fish farming is still struggling to compete with cheaper imported fish.
    "The imported fish is sold for 4000 Iraqi dinars (three dollars a kilo), whereas the fish costs the Iraqi farmer 4000 (Iraqi dinars a kilo), so in this case he will get nothing and he will be disappointed and he may decide not to cultivate fish anymore. The government can help the fish farmer during marketing season by banning imports even for a month to give the farmer time to market his fish at prices he deems profitable," he said.
    Iraq is mostly desert and its inhabitable areas are slaked by the Tigris, which comes down from Turkey, the Euphrates, also from Turkey but passing through Syria, and a network of smaller rivers from Iran, some of which feed the Tigris and the marshes in the south.
    Iraq accuses Turkey, and to a lesser extent Syria, of choking the Euphrates by placing hydroelectric dams on it that have restricted water flow, damaging an Iraqi agricultural sector already hit by decades of war, sanctions and neglect.
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