Once upon a century, the Egyptian Mediterranean fisheries (1920–2019), as affected by ‘fishing down’ and climate change

Abstract

Fishing has been practiced in Egypt for several millennia in the Nile and various lakes, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea. Here, the marine fisheries catch from the area corresponding to Egypt's current Exclusive Economic Zone in the Mediterranean were re-estimated for the shorter period from 1920 to 2019. This study covers reported and formerly unreported commercial and non-commercial, small- and large-scale fisheries catches and estimated discards. Given that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been publishing annual fisheries statistics only since 1950, the comparison of reconstructed marine catch data to the FAO-reported catch data covers only the period from 1950 to 2019. Reconstructed marine fisheries catches for the Egyptian Mediterranean EEZ for 1950–2019 were about 1.3 times the reported catch by the FAO on behalf of Egypt. This discrepancy is due to a combination of elements, mainly unreported commercial industrial and artisanal catches and industrial discards.Several events have drastically affected the Mediterranean marine fisheries of Egypt, such as the opening of the Suez Canal, the Aswan High Dam, and, more recently, the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Climate change has also influenced the overall productivity as well as the species composition of the catch. The Mean Temperature of Catch (MTC) from the Mediterranean Egyptian waters has increased by an annual average of 0.07 °C per year since 1987. The Marine Trophic Index (MTI) showed that ‘fishing down’ has occurred in Egypt's Mediterranean waters since the early 1970s.The dataset provided by this study can be applied to catch-based indicators to better assess the Egyptian Mediterranean fish stocks. This would help improve fisheries management in the region and ensure the sustainability of the Egyptian Mediterranean fisheries.