Fisheries and Aquaculture in Oman Fisheries and Aquaculture in Oman | Page 3

Historically an important industry for food security, fisheries are beset with challenges currently

However, for several years now, the traditional fisheries sector of Oman has been
suffering from a decline of production
• Overfishing: “Tragedy of the commons”, wherein improper governance over
common fishing areas lead to over-exploitation by artisanal as well as
commercial fisheries. The Gulf alone under-reported about 30,000 tonnes of
capture fishing using weirs between 2005 and 2010.
• Increasing demand without an accompanying increase in production: Oman’s
per capita fish consumption is the highest in all of GCC. Meanwhile, an
increase in population, largely made up of protein preferring young population
and expats, further drives demand.
• Poor advances in aquaculture: Aquaculture based production, formally
initiated in 2004, in Oman is in its infancy, producing no more than 500 tonnes
of a total of 206 k tonnes, approximately 0% of total produce.
• Labour Availability: Incidence of migrant labour from Philippines, Bangladesh
and India in the fisheries sector is on the decline, while a number of native
artisanal fishermen and women have abandoned fishing for more lucrative
livelihoods when catch became sparser and sparser.