Table of Contents Next Page


INTRODUCTION

Fisheries hold very considerable potential for contributing to the development of Eritrea, both in terms of foreign exchange earnings and in terms of protein supply to the population. The potential catch of the Red Sea fisheries lies in the range of 50–70000 tons/yr. Still, with communications to remote rural areas being quite difficult, little or no fish is available for much of the national population. As some reservoirs, mainly built for irrigation purposes, are dispersed around the countryside, the idea of developing subsistence or artisanal inland fisheries/aquaculture in these water bodies has to be studied seriously. And since Eritrea has an extensive warm water shoreline, it is also interesting to consider possible developments of marine aquaculture.

This study includes an overview of the available inland water bodies, the existing inland production and market, and projections for evaluating the feasibility and impact of their development. In a second part, the general local conditions for mariculture development are reviewed, and some development ideas are analyzed. The analysis finally leads to the formulation of recommendations for both inland and marine fish culture sectors.


Top of Page Next Page