Fisheries resources play an important role in supporting development, providing food and generating economic yield in many countries. The benefits of this natural harvest has been appreciated for millennia.

Many countries prioritize and manage fish resources to guarantee long-term use and sustainability. However, it has been noticed that many countries the systems for acquiring and analyzing information on fish stock production and abundance, and lack of qualified personnel and knowledge for fisheries data analysis.

Lack of knowledge regarding biomass (available stock) and sustainable yields has led to a huge decrease in the production of some fish along with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, pollution, and damage to natural marine habitats.

Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research noticed an ongoing decline in the country’s fish resources, which led to research on the reasons behind this, to try and establish if it was due to environmental or non-environmental factors so that appropriate management measures could be taken.

The institute revealed that the yearly production in mid-nineties ranged between 8 and 9 thousand tons, while it reached only 3 thousand tons in 2013, at a time when the population and demand for fish resources is increasing.

The institute attributed the decline of fish resources to many environmental factors including increasing salinity in the northern Arabian Gulf, the change in biodiversity, climate change, and changes in productivity at the base of the food chain, as well as some non-environmental reasons like: the illegal, uncontrolled and unregulated fishing, netting, excessive fishing effort, and pollution resulting from construction and human interference. This depletion in fish resources has led to an increase in fish prices in the market in the recent years.

Alongside fish resources depletion, shrimp stocks also continues to decline as a result of high fishing and illegal fishing. The reproductive potential of shrimp stocks is being reduced so the stocks cannot regenerate to their full extent.

Fisheries resources throughout the Gulf face a large number of challenges and effective management needs to be implemented to enable long term production of sustainable fisheries products.