The production of sardines in Boumerdes witnessed a “remarkable recovery” by more than 22 percent during the third quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, said today, Thursday, the director of marine fisheries and aquaculture in the province.
The director of the sector, Habach Hamza, explained that the quantity of fish production in the last three months of all kinds approached 2,090 tons, compared to production that exceeded 1,500 tons in the same period last year, noting that 90% of the quantity is surface blue fish or sardines.
He pointed out that the amount of fish production during the first and second quarters of the current year “significantly reduced” by about 75 percent, compared to the same period last year, due to the health crisis caused by Coronavirus pandemic and the consequent reduction in the activity of fishermen and preventing them from practicing the profession, along with unfavorable climatic factors that hindered the sailing of fishermen.
The revival of fish production, based on the same source, is accompanied by an abundance of supply in the various markets of the province, and this was positively reflected in the prices that witnessed a contraction, as they did not exceed in some periods of the year, 150 dinars per kilogram of sardines as a whole when landing at the ports, while they settled at the retailers between 300 and 350 DA per kg.
The same source attributed the abundance of fish production to several factors, the most important of which is the peak period in production that starts from May and continues until the end of October, and to the appropriate climatic factors and the appropriate sea currents that did not impede the timely spawning of fish.
Other factors, according to the director of the sector, are to combat and reduce the phenomenon of random and unregulated fishing of young fish that have not matured, by some, which contributed to the natural and abundant fish multiplication in the depths of the sea.
