DAMMAM: The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture is trying to activate and support the fisheries sector, as it is expected that 600,000 tons of fish and prawns will be provided yearly by 2029.
This is a significant increase over today’s provision of 100,000 tons, according to Nabil Vita, director of the fisheries center of the eastern region of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.
Talking to an online newspaper on the sidelines of a workshop on marine environment recently organized in Al-Khobar, Vita said that the objective is to increase the level of Saudization in the fisheries sector to 75 percent, creating 400,000 jobs, increasing the annual yield of prawns to 1.7 million tons and setting up of farms.
Nabil said that eight counties of the Gulf divide the fisheries’ produce. This requires coordination between them for sustainability. He said that there were agreements between the six Gulf Cooperation Council members in this area, but that there is also excessive fishing which is harming the reserves.
Vita said that according to statistics of the ministry, the Kingdom produced 28,343 tons of fish in 2004. It had gone down to 27,251 tons in 2013 after increasing to the highest level of 34,337 tons in 2006.
He said that the prawn yields have gone down to 6,415 tons in 2013 after achieving the highest level of 9,003 tons in 2008, and 6,610 tons in 2004.
Giving more details on the activities of the sector, Vita said that 2,144 was the highest number of fishing boats in 2013; in 2004 there were 1,812, which was the lowest level since 2006 when there were 1,853.
Latest statistics said that there are more than 250 fishery projects at the present in the Kingdom. In view of the high consumption, the ministry wants to increase the supply of marine products to 300,000 tons per year.
Fisheries sector to create 400,000 jobs
Fisheries sector to create 400,000 jobs
Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom
RIYADH: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Pakistan’s Chief of Defense Forces Asim Munir discussed Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom, amid the escalating military conflict in the Middle East.
“We discussed Iranian attacks on the Kingdom and the measures needed to halt them within the framework of our Joint Strategic Defense Agreement,” Prince Khalid wrote on social media early on Saturday.
“We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.”
The US and Israel began a large-scale military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has since attacked a number of sites across the Gulf.
Tehran has also attacked US and Israeli military assets as the war as escalated, impacting lives in the peaceful Arabian Gulf peninsula and risked shaking the global economy as Iran continued restricting energy shipping along the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi Defense Ministry said a number of drones had been shot down that were targeting the Shayba oil field in the Empty Quarter on Saturday.
A drone attacked the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday causing a minor fire, but no one was hurt in the incident.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” in September, pledging that aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on both.
Separately, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, the Saudi interior minister, received a call from his Pakistani counterpart Raza Naqvi, who condemned the blatant attacks targeting the Kingdom and affirmed his country’s solidarity in confronting any threats to the Kingdom’s security and stability, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
