WWW.WA S .ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2022 53 selected the potential fish species for cage farming, including milkfish Chanos chanos, leopard coral grouper Plectropomus leopardus, cobia Rachycentron canadum, giant trevally Caranx ignobilis and yellowtail amberjack Seriola lalandi. Additionally, there are requests for information on the profitability, economic analysis, and artificial propagation for target species. Notes Benjamin C. Young, Aquaculture Consultant, National Fisheries Development Program, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, 65 King AbdulAziz Rd., Al Murabba, Riyadh 11195, Saudi Arabia; Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund, Taipei 11047, Taiwan. Tel: +966-54-5457513, E-mail: benjamin@nfdp.gov.sa. ORCID ID: https://orcid. org/0000-0002-7310-0067 Ibrahiem Salih Alzahrani, Aquaculture director, National Fisheries Development Program, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Riyadh 11195, Saudi Arabia Ali Al Shaikhi, Chief Executive Officer, National Fisheries Development Program, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Riyadh 11195, Saudi Arabia References Al-Hafedh, Y.S., A. Alam, A.H. Buschmann and K.M. Fitzsimmons. 2012. Experiments on an integrated aquaculture system (seaweeds and marine fish) on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia: efficiency comparison of two local seaweed species for nutrient biofiltration and production. Reviews in Aquaculture 4:21-31. Ba-Akdah, M.A., S. Satheesh and M.M.O. El-Sherbiny. 2020. Biofouling community development on commercial cage nets submerged in a cage aquaculture facility in the Red Sea. Thalassas 36:667-675. doi.org/10.1007/s41208-020-00235-7 Cardia, F. 2016. The aquaculture investment forum in the Kingdom Elhendy and Alzoom (2001) reported certain issues in Saudi Arabian fish farming, including lack of quality fry, low management expertise levels and lack of freshwater. Saudi Arabian fish farmers face several problems regarding the lack of a broader aquaculture development strategy, the absence of local hatchery facilities or inadequate production, diseases, and a shortage of well-trained personnel (Kitto and Regunathan 2012, Young et al. 2021c, Young and Al Moutiri 2022). Furthermore, certain issues resolved by the government authority established specific industrial policy and development plans for aquaculture (Cardia 2016, Young et al. 2021a). Additionally, the larviculture stage had been confronted with several difficulties, such as extreme salinity. On the coastline of Jeddah, West Saudi Arabia, the seawater salinity is approximately 42-45 ppt during the producing period (Saunders et al. 2016, Young et al. 2021b). Additionally, the high cost of freshwater is an important factor influencing the production costs of aquaculture in Saudi Arabia (Elhendy and Alzoom 2001). Regulations strictly prohibit the installation of water wells (Young et al. 2020, Young and Alfaggeh 2021). Land-based mariculture also faces several obstacles in Saudi Arabia. For instance, the fingerlings of many marine fish species depend on imports (Young and Shaikhi 2022). In addition, fish disease, difficult environmental conditions, lack of skilled personnel, and the limitations of farm site selection are significant issues in the Saudi aquaculture industry (Saunders et al. 2016, Young et al. 2021c, Young and AlMoutiri 2022). Future development ofmarine cage aquaculture in Saudi Arabia. Most aquaculture companies in Saudi Arabia are either industrial or large-scale businesses. In developing countries, this is important because the scale of aquaculture operations makes a significant difference. For example, Saudi industrial-scale producers spent less on feed because they could produce feed in their facilities (Young et al. 2021c). Currently, the Saudi fisheries authority has been evaluating and increasing ideal cage sites. Several potential locations were located near the Red Sea coastline (Fig. 3). The fingerling source from land-based hatcheries or imports should be stable. Therefore, artificial propagation of target species is important. Against this background, the Saudi fisheries authority FIGURE 3. Potential cage farming locations on the Rea Sea coastline, Saudi Arabia. FIGURE 2. Location of primary aquaculture companies in Saudi Arabia. ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 5 4 )
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