Friday, November 15

Aquaculture offers lifeline to floundering Moroccan fishermen

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Gulf News

As fish stocks decline, Moroccan fishermen turn to aquaculture as a way to go forward.

A diver inspects mussels at a mussels farm off the coast of the port city of Nador in Morocco. With fish stocks declining in the Mediterranean, struggling Moroccan fishermen are hoping to turn to aquaculture as a way to secure their future.Image Credit: AFP

Aqua culture as a way to secure their future.Image Credit: AFP2 of 13

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A diver shows a handful of mussels at a mussels farm off the coast of the port city of Nador in Morocco. Figures from Morocco’s department of maritime fishing confirmed the decline. Catches in the eastern Oriental region dropped from 14.7 tonnes to 7.4 between 2013 and 2017.Image Credit: AFP

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A boat sailing past a mussel farm off the coast of Morocco’s port city of Nador.Aimed at preserving fish stocks and supplementing falling revenues for small-scale fishermen, these pilot projects are part of an ambitious national plan launched in 2009 called Blue Morocco.Image Credit: AFP

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Fishermen work on a fish farm off the coast of the Moroccan city of M’diq. “We don’t get anything from the sea anymore, we’re paying for the mistakes of our fathers,” said Mohamed Bouajra, a fisherman in Ras Kebdana, a port town near Morocco’s eastern border with Algeria.Image Credit: AFP

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A diver shows a handful of mussels at a mussels farm off the coast of the port city of Nador in Morocco. Along the rest of Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, catches declined 30 percent, alarming authorities. Depleted fisheries are a financial concern, as exported seafood brought$2.2 billion in 2017, about half of food exports and 10 percent of total exports.Image Credit: AFP

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A boat sailing past a mussel farm off the coast of Morocco’s port city of Nador. With climate change, the environment is deteriorating and fish are becoming scarce – not only in Morocco but across the world.Image Credit: AFP

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Fishermen work on a fish farm off the coast of the Moroccan city of M’diq. In a recent report, Morocco’s financial oversight body, the court of auditors, warned of “over-exploited stocks”, blaming non-compliance with regulations governing quotas, restrictions on fishing gear and closed seasons.Image Credit: AFP

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A worker tends to nets at a mussels farm off the coast of the port city of Nador in Morocco.Image Credit: AFP

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A diver gathers mussels in a farm off the coast of the port city of Nador in Morocc.Image Credit: AFP

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Fisherman work on a fish farm off the coast of the Moroccan city of M’diq.Image Credit: AFP

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A diver inspects mussels at a mussels farm off the coast of the port city of Nador in Morocco.Image Credit: AFP

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A fisherman works on his fishing nets in the Moroccan city of M’diq.Image Credit: AFP

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A diver gathers mussels in a farm off the coast of the port city of Nador in MoroccoImage Credit: AFP
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