Fisheries and Aquaculture in UAE Aquaculture In The United Arab Emirates | Page 3

Historically an important industry for food security, fisheries are beset challenges
currently
However, for several years now, the traditional fisheries sector of UAE 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: UAE’s per capita fish consumption is the 2nd 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 2003, in UAE is still in its infancy, producing no more than 780
tonnes of a total of about 86 k tonnes, approximately 1% of total produce, at
odds with global average of 50%.
• 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.