A POPULAR fish will be off the menu for two months as a seasonal ban has come into effect.
The Agriculture and Marine Resources Agency at the Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Ministry has announced that catching, trading and selling kingfish, or chan’ad, by nets is banned from August 15 to October 15.
It said the decision comes with the aim of increasing the stock of kingfish within the total fish stock in the kingdom, regulating the fishing process, and avoiding the depletion of kingfish fisheries, in order to achieve balance within marine life, stressing that all necessary measures will be taken to implement the ban decision.
Fishermen have been ordered to adhere to the ban that coincides with the mating season of the fish, which is one of Bahraini people’s favourites, and is intended to allow stocks to replenish.
Under the decision, it is prohibited to display and sell kingfish in public places during the ban period.
Violators face penalties as stipulated in Decree Law No. 20 of 2002 on the regulation of fishing, exploitation and protection of marine resources.
Bahrain has seasonal bans for crabs, shrimp and kingfish to protect stocks and allow them to replenish and environmentalists believe the measure should be expanded.
Shrimping is banned from February 1 to July 31, with other GCC nations also imposing similar bans.
The GDN previously reported that a Bahraini study called for an extension of the two-month ban on fishing for kingfish to six months, from May to October each year.
The study on Gulf kingfish was conducted by the Sitra Fishermen Association and prepared by Dr Ibrahim Qadir, a fisheries consultant.
The study called for developing and adopting a national plan for the management of kingfish, based on scientific foundations, taking into account the protection of ecosystems and the management of fisheries at the local and regional levels.
The ban on catching kingfish comes in implementation of a decision taken by the GCC Agricultural Co-operation Committee at its 23rd meeting, held at the headquarters of the GCC general secretariat in Riyadh, which stipulated that the GCC member-states take measures to protect kingfish, including increasing the legal length of fish allowed to be caught, increasing the eye opening in the nets, and determining the season of prohibition of fishing with nets.
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