Photo credit: David Elliott (Mac Alister Elliott & Pts.) – UK
Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
Balhaf is an industrial port town that belongs to Shabwa of Yemen and located about 150 km from Al Mukalla, the capital of Hadhramaut. Balhaf’s marine exclusive zone is approximately 130 kilometers west of Mukalla and 400 kilometers east of Aden.
The coral reefs of the Balhaf area is of particular economic value through providing favorable environments for the reproduction, recruitment and growth of numerous reef fishes and hence supplying an important quantity of fishes to the local fishermen.
The hard coral skeletons provide structural relief which can enable the larvae of invertebrates and vertebrates (including fish) to settle, provide refuge for species during their life stages till adult stages, provide nursery areas for many species, and provide food and feeding habitat for many organisms, including commercially important fish.
The boat shown in the inserted picture is for pelagic fish. In that regard, as a part of its social responsibility towards fisheries sector, the Yemen Liquefied natural gas company (LNG) has established several of fish aggregation devices which was found successful in attracting pelagic fish, including Long tail and Yellow fin tuna, opening up new fishing opportunities for the local fisheries especially in the offshore region and reducing the fishing pressure on the coastal and coral associated fisheries.