Fishing and aquaculture in Tipasa: An ambitious sector in search of rehabilitation – The fishing sector employs 9,000 people, which represents 4% of the active workforce in the wilaya. In 2022, with a total volume of 14,370 tonnes, blue fish represents 84% of the fisheries production. As for exports, the wilaya of Tipasa exported 412 tonnes of octopus to Spain and Portugal. This volume has decreased compared to the year 2021, when octopus exports reached 735 tonnes. The export of bluefin tuna in the year 2022 amounts to 521 tonnes. The tuna fishing season runs from 26 May to 1 July each year. Algeria respects its quota allocated by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
The bluefin tuna quota allocated to Algeria is 1650 tonnes, while in 2023 the quota has been increased to 2023 tonnes for our country. Bluefin tuna fishing in 2022 brought in a sum of around 2.85 billion centimes for the public treasury. The transaction took place in international waters. The bluefin tuna was transported by clients to fattening sites in Malta and Tunisia. Investors who were granted concessions before 2019 to invest in aquaculture and who proved to be unsuccessful have had their decisions cancelled by the wilaya of Tipasa. The number of cancellations concerns six decisions. This clean-up operation will have enabled the fisheries sector to recover a sea area of 145 ha. An opportunity for other serious investors who respect the specifications, interested in this land “at sea”. In addition, the wilaya of Tipasa has just put on notice seven other beneficiaries of decisions, who were to invest in aquaculture.
Their failures will oblige the wilaya of Tipasa to call upon other economic operators to develop the aquaculture sector, creating employment, wealth and encouraging fish production. The fact remains that the wilaya of Tipasa had granted a favourable opinion in 2022 for eight investment files in aquaculture, which foresee a fish production of 4775 tons and will create 160 direct jobs. In the framework of the cleaning up of the quays of the fishing ports, at the end of the inspection of the head of the Executive of the wilaya, Boucetta Aboubakr Essedik, ordered the local officials and their counterparts of the fishing sector, to clean up the quays of the fishing ports, and to take the necessary measures to remove the 72 boats (wrecks, editor’s note) of different dimensions abandoned in the ports. One boat remains submerged in the port of Khemisti, while three others have been sequestered by the coastguard services. The marketing of fish without respecting the law on the commercial size of fish is still a matter of debate. The absence of controls has been a factor that encourages the fishing of these tons of fish, including sardines, on the one hand, and on the other hand, dynamite fishing, the use of drift nets (although prohibited in other countries, editor’s note) by fishermen, the failure to respect the “biological” break by some boats, in addition to the growing pollution of the sea, are all black spots that remain to be remedied, in order to protect the marine environment, its fauna and flora.
Despite the inspections carried out by the Tipasa fisheries directorate in the ports of the wilaya of Tipasa, collective awareness is imperative if the will to perpetuate this wealth produced by the sea exists.
From the citizen consumer to the fisherman, through the various stages of transporting the fish, through the rigour of controls and checks, from the sea to the fish marketing stalls, in accordance with the laws and regulations. Unfortunately, the situation on the ground does not correspond to the instructions of the high authorities of the State. In Tipasa, the potential of the fishing and aquaculture sector is not an empty word. They open up better prospects. Nevertheless, the reorganisation and the rigour in the respect of the texts are imperative, to reach the objectives registered in the ambition of the sector of this strategic sector.
Fishing and aquaculture in Tipasa: An ambitious sector in search of rehabilitation
