As part of ongoing efforts to enhance environmental sustainability and preserve the Kingdom's natural resources, the Makkah Region branch of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture conducted a series of intensive field inspection campaigns directly targeting fishermen's harbors and marine recreational areas along the region's coastline. This initiative is part of a comprehensive strategy to enforce compliance with marine fishing regulations and ensure the protection of fish stocks from harmful practices that could threaten the ecological balance.
Official statistics released by the branch's agricultural department revealed that inspection teams successfully conducted 85 thorough inspection tours, examining nearly 500 boats, including artisanal fishing vessels and recreational boats. These tours aimed to verify the boats' compliance with regulations and ensure that owners and fishermen adhered to the established rules and regulations, guaranteeing that prohibited fishing gear was not being used, which could deplete fish stocks or damage coral reefs and the marine environment.
The importance of fisheries in Vision 2030
These campaigns are of paramount strategic importance in light of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, which places great emphasis on the fisheries sector as a cornerstone of national food security. The Ministry is working to transform this sector into a sustainable industry that contributes to the GDP, necessitating stricter monitoring to prevent overfishing, which threatens fish reproduction and the sustainability of fish stocks for future generations. The Red Sea coast is a rich biodiversity environment, making its preservation a pressing national and environmental responsibility.
The field teams of the Fisheries Department focused their efforts during the campaign on verifying the compliance of fishermen and recreational boaters with the regulations, and ensuring the use of standard fishing gear with legal openings, which ensures the protection of small fish and allows them to reproduce, which directly contributes to achieving sustainability for living aquatic resources.
Awareness and oversight: two parallel paths
The efforts were not limited to punitive and regulatory measures; inspections were accompanied by intensive awareness and guidance programs for beneficiaries. These programs included detailed explanations of the new regulations and instructions, aiming to raise legal awareness among fishermen and prevent them from committing violations that could subject them to penalties, emphasizing that awareness is the first line of defense for environmental protection.
For his part, Engineer Waleed bin Ibrahim Al-Daghis, Director General of the Ministry's branch in the Makkah region, affirmed that these initiatives reinforce the principle of effective field monitoring to raise compliance rates and protect natural resources from depletion. Al-Daghis emphasized that awareness is a fundamental pillar complementing the monitoring role in achieving environmental sustainability goals, noting that the campaign seeks to regulate maritime practices according to the highest regulatory standards.
The branch director general concluded his statement by appreciating the strategic cooperation and integration with the Border Guard Command in the Makkah region and all participating security and governmental agencies, stressing their pivotal role in facilitating the tasks of the inspectors and ensuring the success of plans to comply with agricultural regulations, which reflects the concerted governmental efforts to protect the nation’s natural resources.
