Tilapia Aquaculture In Saudi Arabia Farming With Seaweed May Improve Economic, Environmental Sustainability

摘要

Saudi Arabia has a growing aquaculture industry that farms mainly tilapia, but also shrimp, grouper, sea bream, rabbit fish and mullet. Although aquaculture is a major source of supply for fresh fish, it has not grown fast enough to meet the country'sgrowing demand. The use of multitrophic systems containing tilapia and seaweed could improve both economic and environmental sustainability. Rearing tilapia in highly saline waters would open further potential for Saudi fish farmers. Saudi Arabia occupies 80% of the area of the Arabian Peninsula and is bordered by the Red Sea on the west and the Arabian Gulf, which is located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula on the east. Although its aquaculture production is still smaller than that of the country's wild-capture fisheries, output has grown substantially from 2,696 mt in 1995 to 22,253 mt in 2008 - providing product with a value of U.S. $229 million. This volume represented about 24% of fish production in the kingdom.