Challenges facing fishermen in Bardawil lake, north Sinai, Egypt

Abstract

Bardawil Lake is considered one of the most important and purest Egyptian lakes. However, in recent years, a relative decrease in the quantity and value of production and a qualitative change has been observed in the fish produced by the lake. Hence, this study aimed to identify the most important problems facing the fishermen in Bardawil Lake and their suggestions to overcome them. This study was conducted in North Sinai Governorate, Data were collected using a focus group discussion method with 90.6% of the board's members of fishing associations (58 respondents). in addition, A random sample of 346 fishermen through a personal interview from May to December 2020. The results indicated the high age levels of fishermen (X̅ = 50.44) and the high illiteracy rate among them (58.57%) despite their high experience in the fishing profession, but unfortunately, it was not based on a training background as 69.65% of the respondent fishermen did not receive any training courses. only 13.45% of them depended on the agricultural extension as the main source of technical information, which indicates a clear absence of the agricultural extension role with the fishermen in the lake. The most important obstacles facing the respondent fishermen were the weak income from the fishing profession 89.88%, the weak role of agricultural extension 86.42%, the insufficiency of the role of fishing cooperatives 83.82%, While their most important suggestions were to activate the laws regulating the fishing process 90.17% and to prevent illegal fishing 84.68%. The study recommends developing fish extension and providing it with specialists in the fields of fisheries development to play a more effective role in this field.