Fish catch in Oman declines by 14%

Business Saturday 04/April/2020 17:35 PM
By: Times News Service
Fish catch in Oman declines by 14%

Muscat: The total quantity of fish landed in Oman by using traditional fishing practices reached 59,946 tonnes till the end of January 2020, a decline by 14 per cent over 69,743 tonnes in 2019, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information.
The total value of the fish stock was OMR29,113 million in 2020, representing a growth by 6.6 per cent over OMR27,321 million in 2019.
The Governorate of Al Wusta had the highest fish landing with 25.624 tonnes, followed by the Governorate of South Al Sharqiyah with 17,828 tonnes, and the Governorate of Dhofar with 5,914 tonnes. The quantity of fish landed in the governorates of North and South Al Batinah stood at 5,281 tonnes, the quantity in the Governorate of Musandam stood at 3,517 tonnes and the landed quantity in the Governorate of Muscat stood at 1,783 tonnes.
As for fish landing by species, the largest quantity of fish landed by the end of January 2020 comprised small pelagic fishes at 40,001 tonnes, compared to 52,400 tonnes at the end of January 2019, a decline of 23.7 per cent. The quantity of large pelagic fish rose by 46.7 per cent to reach 10,037 tonnes by the end of January 2020 compared to 6,840 tonnes by the end of January 2019. The quantity of demersal fish landed reached 8,644 tonnes, comprising a drop by 2.1 per cent compared to the end of January 2019, which stood at 8,828 tonnes. There was also a decline in the number of sharks and rays by 22.3 per cent to stood at 478 tonnes, compared to 615 tonnes in January 2019.
The number of crustaceans and molluscs declined by 51 per cent to stand at 379 tonnes, compared with 774 in the same period in 2019, while the number of other fish types landed by traditional fishing stood at 406 tonnes.
Coastal and commercial fishing contributed to about 562 tonnes and 3,932 tonnes of total fish landings, respectively, by the end of January 2020.