Fisheries

As a developing country, many of Bahrain’s land reclamation projects and reef destruction has significantly impacted the maintenance and availability of its fish stocks. This demolition of sea habitats results in limited development for its sea-life, and thus, fishery production becomes difficult to maintain as will be demonstrated in the charts below.

Graph to show the rate of Aquaculture Production in Bahrain between 2007 - 2016

In line with the previous graphs presenting Bahrain’s biggest sectors of food imports and exports, it becomes clear why the percentage of its fish exports are significantly larger than that of its imports. The graph above demonstrates that the rate of Bahrain’s aquaculture production has majorly risen in 2014 onwards after facing a major low of producing fewer metric tons of fish between 2006 – 2013. There appears to be stagnant rate of 6 metric tons of aquaculture being produced and maintained between 2015 – 2016.

Graph to show the rate of Fisheries Production in Bahrain between 2007 - 2016

The above graph showcases the Total Fisheries production in Bahrain. This means it measures the volume of aquatic species caught for all commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes. The harvest from mariculture, aquaculture and other kinds of fish farming is also included. The lowest recorded production was in 2011 with 9,918.000 metric tons and the highest recorded production was in 2012 with 27,092.720 metric tons.

The general trend of these charts show that the production of Bahrain’s fish greatly fluctuates. This means that there is neither a steady production of fish in Bahrain nor is there a controlled means of ensuring this is the case whether this be through traditional or non-traditional means of catching fish.

Average Retail Price for Local Fish in 2014

The chart above shows the average retail price for local fish in 2014 which include rabbits, groupers, perches, trevallies, shrimp, mackerel and crabs. As shown, the most expensive fish breed per kilo are the groupers with a figure of BD5.630 per kilo, whereas the least expensive are crabs, which are only BD0.970. The fish that are closest to each other in price appears to be the rabbits, perches, trevallies and shrimps.