PROPER MEANS FOR ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT OF COASTAL FARMING
By
Abdel Kadir Hamza Mobarak
National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
Al Anfoushy, 21656, Alexandria – Egypt
Abstract:-
Marine lagoons are proper sites for fish culture in Egypt. Such type of farming is not practiced due to: fry resources, stocking equation, climatic conditions, feeding, rearing and production management, crop harvesting, transportation and marketing. In Egypt, the common practice is rearing marine simple means of engineering (Hamza, 1996).
Mariculture can be developed in two ways: (Land-based facilities or – open sea floating cages). Both techniques are widely used all over the world but not yet implemented in Egypt because there are gaps in commercial application (Hamza, 1999).
Lagoon is cultured in land-based and offshore; the semi-intensive and intensive level is observed. Land-based farms are tidal-fed ponds and/or recalculating system while offshore farms could be fish pens, enclosures or cages. Fish culture in floating cages is more used than submerged or bottom cages. Mariculture differ than inland farming since it involves advanced technology in the construction and operation being a multidisciplinary approach and has a wide range of interrelated options in both basic and applied sciences leading to the establishment of sustainable development and Eco-friendly type of fish culture.
Fish farming can be divided into five phases; stocking, feeding, rearing, harvesting and marketing. This should be included in the feasibility study which is a form of planning at the time of setting up a new venture. The concept of lagoon culture depends on different interrelated economic or technical factors and its input and output can be minimized or maximized as needed.
In Egypt, severe disproportion of research and application in mariculture exist but some achievements have been reached. For example, construction-engineering research was tackled theoretically by modeling in different problems as raceways-soil relationship for establishing concrete ponds used for intensive fish farming, studied reinforcement of soil embankments against sliding failures by using Geo-chemicals. The offshore fish cage culture and its balance when suspended on guyed towers was studied by (Hendam, et al. (1994). Sporadic efforts were conducted to farming management and economics but mostly for the units of farms nearby the coastal lakes.
Most of problems in fish production rates are attributed to random engineering and management during construction and operation leading to poor quality and quantity of the harvest. This review may elucidate the means of enhancing mariculture in Egypt within the range of possible engineering and management accessible factors and economic nature.
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