Categories
vol-24BID-ECONOMIC STUDY DF THE EGYPTIAN
SPONGE FISHERIES
By
S.M, ABD EL-HAFEZ*, AND M.S, EL-BESHBEESHY
*National Institute ofOceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt.
Key words: Fisheries, Sponge,Bio-economic
ABSTRACT
The Egyptian commercial sponges are considered the best all
over the world because ofthe suitable environmentalfactors along
the west coast ofAlexandria to Libia borders.
The Egyptian commercial sponge catch supplies Egyptian
national income with average of about 0.274 Million Egyptian
Pound/year.
A sharp decrease in the annual catch in sponge fisheries was
recognized in 1987.
A total of about 5663 Kilograms were obtained in 1986, droped
suddenly to about 1087 Kilograms in 1987 and reached about 610
Kilograms only in 1992. (all the catch goes int~!~ternational trade).
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the present status of
Egyptian Mediterranean commercial sponge beds Biologically and
Economically to give recommendations in order to maintain these
beds. Descriptive economical analysis and quantitative economical
analysis has been adopted in the study according to the data
published by the central Agency ofPublic Mobilization and Statistics
(CAPMAS) in Egypt for the period of study (1980-1995) and
forecasting the sponge Production to the year 2005, in addition to
the studies related to the research’s subject.
