Fishermen freed a whale shark from their nets in the Red Sea and returned it to the water. The rescue spread on social media under the name “Bahloul.” What no one rescued, however, was the sea itself.
Bahloul’s encounter illustrates a wider crisis in Egypt’s Red Sea waters. In Foul Bay, south of Marsa Alam, near pristine protected areas around Zabargad Island and Ras Banas, destructive fishing continues.
The fisheries authority and Environment Ministry face allegations of issuing commercial fishing licences within the ecological zone of Gebel Elba Protected Area. Critics say this has opened the south to trawlers and purse-seine boats from Suez, threatening seabeds and coral reefs and harming diving tourism and sport fishing. These are allegations reported in the article, rather than an established finding concerning every licence.
In El Gouna, during the Red Sea International Fishing Championship, environmental activists observed boats carrying sakhawi: metal basket traps for squid and fish described in the report as prohibited equipment. Their movement in front of ports and departure points raised questions about enforcement while destructive fishing persisted in the Gulf of Suez and Red Sea.
The article cites an 8.8% share for the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez in Egypt’s approximately 400,000-tonne annual natural fishery catch. The damage, however, can exceed the saleable catch. It describes around 160 boats operating from Ataka and Suez using two controversial methods: bottom trawling, dragging large conical nets across the seabed, and purse seining, locally called shanshola, using powerful lights to attract surface fish at night.
A 2022 National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries study cited in the report estimates a 56.1% discard rate in Gulf of Suez trawling, meaning marine organisms caught unintentionally and thrown back dead. The report gives a 50–90% range for Red Sea shrimp fisheries. Mohamed Kaddah, president of the Egyptian Fishing Federation, estimates discards at around 70% for trawlers and 30–50% for purse-seine boats. These estimates concern different fisheries and sources.
This occurs despite explicit restrictions. In mid-May 2024, Red Sea Governor’s Decision No. 266 and South Sinai Governor’s Decision No. 129 introduced a five-year ban across much of the Red Sea south of Gebel al-Zeit, including Foul Bay and southern areas, alongside restrictions involving the Gulfs of Aqaba and Suez. The report describes fishing as permitted in the northern Gulf of Suez outside protected areas. The geographical scope and exceptions are central to the subsequent dispute.
Between May and mid-July 2024, selling and circulating Red Sea fish in markets and restaurants was prohibited, and shrimp fishing in threatened areas was restricted during breeding. In 2025, restrictions included a trawling ban outside the Gulf of Suez from mid-April to mid-July, with purse-seine restrictions continuing until September. These are historical measures described in the report, rather than a complete current licensing guide.
Sport-fishing representatives objected when restrictions also covered their boats, competitions and leisure yachts. They believe enforcement lacked balance between environmental protection and the sustainability of maritime tourism.
Kaddah acknowledges that the ban is enforced and violating boats are stopped and lose licences. Commercial fishers requested that sport and recreational fishing also be covered, and this happened for a period before Foul Bay was opened as an alternative. Reaching it from Ataka in Suez takes two continuous days at sea, however, making journeys expensive and unviable. Some boats consequently fish along the coast through Hurghada, Safaga and Marsa Alam, he says.
For Kaddah, trawlers and purse-seine boats are the core problem. He compares a trawler to a bulldozer sweeping the seabed, returning 70–80% of its catch dead because it has no commercial value, despite those organisms’ ecological role. Purse seines catch surface fish along with juveniles and sometimes operate inside protected areas, he says.
“These practices kill juveniles and prevent the sea from recovering. Their continuation will destroy the fish and coral reefs on which diving tourism depends,” Kaddah told Zawia3. He says intensive fishing in Foul Bay near Gebel Elba also conflicts with the state’s investment plans at Ras Banas.
Kaddah describes 160 boats leaving Ataka alone, with licences traded for EGP 10–15 million, sometimes separately from boats. He also links sharks approaching beaches to depletion of their prey; this is his explanation, rather than a single established cause for all shark movements. He calls for tracking devices on commercial boats to monitor movements and prevent violations.
Pressure on the Ecosystem and Fishers’ Livelihoods
Dr Sahar Mehanna, professor of fish population dynamics at the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, broadly agrees but adds a social dimension. Trawling is highly destructive and has been prohibited or replaced with less damaging methods in many places, yet it remains a livelihood for thousands of Egyptian fishers who have practised it for decades. She advocates strict regulation, technical improvements, fewer boats and designated grounds rather than complete abolition.
The report cites research putting artisanal fishers’ average income at no more than 54% of average rural income. It also discusses artisanal fishing as 70–80% of activity and industrial or commercial fishing as 20–30% while earning more than half of revenue. Those activity measures should not be confused with shares of landed catch: the cited 2024 Red Sea stock study separately describes bottom trawling as around 20% of catch, purse seining as 68% and artisanal methods as 12%, with trawling generating about 54% of gross revenue.
Mehanna explains that trawling is already prohibited on coral reefs, whose rocky bottom tears nets. Permitted trawling grounds are confined to the Gulf of Suez and southern Foul Bay’s sandy or muddy seabeds. She warns that other methods, including trammel and gill nets used to catch hook bait, operate among reefs despite legal restrictions and limited monitoring.
“The large number of violations compared with limited enforcement has encouraged some fishers to go further. Even sport and recreational fishing have in some cases become unregulated commercial activities because of absent oversight,” she told Zawia3.
She also warns about ghost nets: equipment lost underwater that continues to trap turtles and dolphins, suffocating them or restricting movement. Shrimp trawling catches small fish, juveniles and other non-target organisms of ecological importance. The problem worsened when this bycatch became a commodity sold to fish farms or processed into fishmeal, creating an incentive to continue catching it.
The report cites Egypt’s Environment Law No. 4 of 1994, amended in 2009, and Protected Areas Law No. 102 of 1983 as protections against catching or harming designated marine species, including whale sharks, sea turtles and certain sharks and dolphins. It also describes restrictions on unlawful cages or nets, small-mesh nets, explosives, electrical fishing and catching juveniles or immature fish.
Article 31 of Law No. 146 of 2021 on protecting and developing lakes and fisheries prohibits catching, collecting, transporting or possessing fish fry, turtles, marine molluscs and other aquatic organisms from lakes, shores or other water bodies without authorisation from the Lakes and Fish Resources Protection and Development Agency.
Mehanna stresses that heavy industrial methods threaten coral when used outside designated grounds. For her, the problem is not simply a method’s name but failure to observe technical and legal standards, particularly mesh size. Narrow mesh catches undersized and sexually immature fish, worsening overfishing.
She also calls for assessment of tourism carrying capacity: the daily activities an environmentally vulnerable area can accommodate without damaging resources. Excessive activity degrades reefs through uncontrolled anchoring and visitors’ practices. The Red Sea’s reefs support more than a thousand fish species, she notes, making their destruction a threat to biodiversity and tourism alike.
Sound fisheries management rests on regulation rather than blanket prohibition and on science balancing conservation with livelihoods, Mehanna argues. Researchers, implementing authorities and resource users must work together to preserve marine resources for future generations.
Dr Alaa al-Huweit, former dean of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport’s fisheries technology and aquaculture faculty, agrees about trawling’s impact but says it is not the only cause of deterioration. He identifies pressure from dense coastal resort development, land reclamation and construction, waste discharged into the sea and large increases in leisure yachts and diving trips.
“The numbers of commercial and recreational boats and the multiplication of trips and yachts beyond what was planned in the 1990s exceed the area’s ecological capacity. There is both excessive fishing and unregulated tourism, causing environmental deterioration,” he told Zawia3.
He urges a comprehensive approach encompassing commercial fishing, recreation, tourism expansion and construction rather than singling out one group. Overlapping responsibilities among ministries and governorates create inconsistent regulation, he says. A single empowered body should manage fisheries, with unified legislative and executive authority and enforcement by security bodies.
A Valuable Fishery Under Strain
Lawful commercial fishing is part of Egypt’s fisheries sector, supporting natural fish production, jobs and incomes. A 2024 study records annual Red Sea landings of 43,600–51,500 tonnes during 2012–2021, averaging about 48,000 tonnes, or 11.5% of Egypt’s natural catch. This historical study measure differs from the 8.8% figure cited earlier. Egypt’s total fish production approaches two million tonnes annually and depends mainly on aquaculture.
The Gulf of Suez contributes most, particularly through industrial trawling and purse seining. The southern Red Sea, especially Berenice and Shalateen, is important for lower-income artisanal fishing, while Gulf of Aqaba activity is entirely artisanal, according to the sources cited in the report.
The catch includes emperors, groupers, trevallies, mackerels, sardines and snappers, alongside shrimp and squid. Large shrimp and cuttlefish account for around 45% of trawling’s gross revenue in the cited study. That study assessed 55 commercial species and found 50, or 90.9%, overexploited. The percentage applies to assessed species, not every Red Sea species. Major landing and trading ports include Ataka, Hurghada, El-Tor, Berenice, Shalateen and Nuweiba.
One Kilogram Sold, Ten Kilograms Lost?
Dr Ashraf Shibl, head of the Economics Department at Suez University’s Faculty of Fish Resources, identifies overfishing as a major threat to biological stocks, especially juveniles needed for future production. Trawling sweeps up saleable and unsaleable organisms alike. He estimates that producing one kilogram of saleable fish may destroy around ten kilograms of marine organisms, including high-value species important to exports. The ten-to-one ratio is his estimate, rather than a uniform measurement for every fishing trip.
He told Zawia3 that deploying fleets beyond natural fisheries’ capacity—by boat numbers, engine power or equipment—is itself overfishing. Each ground has a production capacity linked to depth and ecosystem characteristics. Exceeding it damages stocks and weakens the marine environment.
“Overfishing’s effect is not limited to declining long-term production. It destroys marine habitats, including coral reefs and mangroves, that are vital for reproduction and growth. These habitats are a form of social capital that must be preserved for their environmental, economic and tourism role,” Shibl said.
Coral destruction also harms maritime and diving tourism, which depend on healthy and beautiful ecosystems. Continued overfishing risks a significant national income source and weakens Egyptian Red Sea destinations’ competitiveness against other countries, he warns.
“Overfishing damages the blue economy, which encompasses much more than fish production. It includes economic activities linked to marine resources and improving economic and biological benefits from Egypt’s approximately thirteen million feddans of water area while preserving fisheries’ biological stocks,” he added.
A survey of artisanal Red Sea fishers reported in a 2023 Queen’s University Belfast research presentation found 83% of respondents believed their catch per unit effort and income had declined over the previous decade. Sixty-one percent identified overfishing as the main threat, compared with 16% naming seasonal closure. Eighty percent believed closures did not protect stocks and 58% said their timing did not match important species’ spawning. These are surveyed fishers’ responses, rather than a census of every Red Sea fisher.
Shibl says overfishing, industrial, agricultural and sewage pollution, and climate change degrade marine conditions. Rising temperatures can cause coral bleaching and threaten ecosystem functions, while changes in species composition may drive away high-value fish and reduce export competitiveness. Bleaching does not necessarily mean a coral is already dead: NOAA explains that stressed coral can recover, but prolonged stress and algae loss can lead to death.
He stresses observance of fishing closures protecting spawning and juveniles. Economic alternatives and support during closures are essential so fishers are not pushed towards prohibited fishing. Cooperatives should help educate fishers and protect their income.
Alongside stronger enforcement, Shibl calls for policies balancing marine protection and livelihoods by setting boat numbers for each ground, regulating operating capacity and applying fishing-season rules to achieve environmental and economic sustainability.
Monitoring the Whole Marine Economy
Engineer Hossam Moharram, a former adviser to the environment minister, describes coral ecosystems as exceptionally important and rich in hundreds of fish and other marine species. They face threats from destructive methods, including fine-mesh nets catching fish before reproduction, poisons and explosives.
“The danger is not limited to fewer fish. It affects threatened marine organisms and disrupts the natural balance of marine food chains, potentially causing long-term deterioration that is difficult to reverse,” Moharram told Zawia3.
Unregulated fishing creates real economic losses by threatening fishers’ livelihoods and nature tourism dependent on reef health and marine life, he says. He calls for stronger monitoring, breeding-season closures, protected-area biodiversity conservation and modern technology to track violating boats.
The Foul Bay crisis is more than a dispute between fishers and regulators: it tests the state’s ability to manage marine resources through a blue-economy approach balancing protection and development. Commercial fishing and other human pressures threaten ecological balance, fisheries and tourism. Stronger enforcement, better monitoring and statistics, and training in sustainable practices that respect social justice offer a route towards lasting fisheries.
