Bioeconomic Analysis on the Egyptian Coastal Fisheries in the Mediterranean and Red Seas

Abstract

Fish landing in the Egyptian water has declined substantially on both of the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea from 89.943 metric tonnes (MT) and 82.400 metric tonnes in the 1999 to 53.964 metric tonnes and 49.690 MT in the 2016 owing to overfishing. This declined in fisheries is provoked by several factors. The most important of them is the number of fishing vessels used. The aim of this research is to provide current stock and economic situations of marine fisheries in Egypt. The analysis employs catch and effort data of total production to determine biological parameters using surplus production models. The CY&P suitable to estimate maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and fishing effort in MSY (EMSY) is selected, because it appears the model is the finest to estimate MSY. In addition, bio-economic model based on the CY&P model is developed by the price and fishing cost of all species caught by all fishing gears in the both seas. The result shows that the main reasons of depletion of the catch cause to the present overfishing efforts due to the reduction of fisheries resources. To achieve the maximum economic rent, the present effort level should be diminished from current overfished fishing efforts to the level of EMEY by implementing taxing fishing effort, reducing trawler fishing gear, and activation of monitoring & inspection systems. In addition, to reduce fishing efforts of the both seas, this research recommends the TAC where every species should be subjected to quota regulation, controlling the mesh size of fishing net to prohibition overfishing and protecting fish juveniles, implementing of Ecosystem Approach Fisheries according to recommended of GFCM, improving the fishery statistics recording system, and introducing the new technologies in recording system to ensure transparency.