Pressures on Egyptian Red Sea fisheries from the artisan fishers’ perspective

Rehab Farouk-Abdelfattah, Pia Schuchert, Keith D. Farnsworth*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

The Egyptian Red Sea (ERS) supports artisanal, commercial and recreational fisheries, managed using a summertime closure, not applied to recreational fishing. Stock status is little known and management options are severely limited. To inform future management, we report the results of a questionnaire survey of artisan fishers from four Red Sea ports, collecting basic socioeconomic and fisheries data: fleet characteristics, self-reported landings, plus attitudes towards current management. Relationships among catches, technical and social categories and categorised attitudes were analysed using ordinal and multinomial logistic regressions. Median income of ERS artisanal fishers was 54% of the mean income from work in rural Egypt in 2020. Almost all respondents reported declining catches (61% blamed “overfishing”) and most were pessimistic (43% expected to remain fishing in 10 years time). The seasonal closure was poorly supported by artisanal fishers: 75% claimed it contributed to declining resources. The timing of the closure, intended to protect spawning fish, aligned with published spawning seasons for some, but not all important species. 66% of fishers identified this mismatch as the reason for policy failure. High dissatisfaction rates risk non-compliance: e.g. 23% of those interviewed switched to ‘recreational’ fishing during the closed season. Most artisan fishers of the ERS are in a precarious economic position, facing a declining resource, under management that few support, with concerns about the long term future for their livelihood. We suggest transition to a participatory approach with data-driven co-management as a long term solution.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107406
Number of pages18
JournalOcean & Coastal Management
Volume258
Early online date03 Oct 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Nov 2024

Keywords

  • Egyptian Red Sea fisheries
  • artisan fishers
  • recreational fisheries
  • commercial fisheries

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