The management of both the capture fisheries of Lake Edku and the Barsik Fish Farm are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Fisheries of the Governorate of Beheira. This department is based at Edku Town and comprises of 4 sub-offices at Edku, Maadia, Rashid and Fazara. One officer is responsible for the fish farms within the governorate, whilst the rest of the activities of the office are concerned with the control and management of the capture fisheries. The Barsik Fish Farm is managed separately and it is directly the charge of the Director of Fisheries. The staff structure of the Department of Fisheries is as follows:
Director (also in charge of the Barsik Fish Farm)
Deputy Director
Production Department (5 Engineers)
Department of Cooperatives (3 Engineers)
Fisheries Control Department (10 Officers)
Accounts Department (4 Officers)
Secretarial support (2)
Field workers/Drivers (4)
(Information derived from interviews)
The management programme has 3 main elements:
The issue of licences for boats and fishermen
The collection of data on the yield of the fishery
The management of the lake by a programme of dredging, weed clearance and control.
Licences are issued at an annual rate of LE 2 000 for boats affiliated to Cooperatives and LE 4 000 for private boats. Individual fishermen can obtain licences at a cost of LE 1 0001. Licence records indicate that there are about 1 340 licensed boats (with an estimated additional 200 to 300 unlicensed) and about 4 600 fishermen (1985 figures).
1 Exchange: US$ 1.00 = LE 0.8217 (September 1985)
Records of the lake yield are mostly derived from the reports of the lakeside cooperatives and there appears to be little, or no, independent observation by the staff of the Fisheries Department.
There appears to be little collation of the catch statistics, and in some cases conflicting figures were provided to the consultant team. The precision of much of these data must be considered variable.
The major activity of the Department is concerned with the programme of weed removal and channel dredging. This programme is based on the assumption that it would be feasible and economic to significantly retard the natural processes of land reclamation and lake senescence. Although a considerable benefit in terms of water flow may be obtained by clearing and deepening flow channels at specific inflows to the general lake circulation, a pattern of short cleared channels, at what appear to be randomly chosen locations, probably has little effect on the overall productivity - although a considerable improvement is claimed to have been derived from the last three year's programme of dredging, the consultant team was able to find little information. It is claimed that this programme completed some 150 to 200 km of dredged channel. From the disposition of the channels described to the consultants, it seems more likely that only some 50 km could have been dredged, which at a mean width of 10 m, indicates a total clearance of some 50 ha. This relatively small achievement would be in line with the known difficulty of using floating dredges under the local conditions.
The Department possesses two large Hitachi amphibious scoop dredges (currently out of action) and access to a “Wilder” weed cutter (with two more on order) presently based at the Barsik Fish Farm. The Department appears to be short of road transport, and apparently has no boat transport.
The following list indicates the staff structure of the Barsik Fish Farm. This government fish culture station is run primarily as a production facility, but also has an extension and training function. Construction started in 1979 with the first partial production in 1983. In 1984 the full available hectarage was under production. Table 1 summarizes the production history of the farm. The farm appears to be adequately equipped with on-farm transport and equipment. In addition, there has been a recent delivery of two seed-fish transport lorries and one “Wilder” floating weed cutter. Two “Hockney” floating weed cutters and three more “Wilders” are on order, to be deliverd within the TCP Project. Apart from their use on Barsik Fish Farm, they will also be available for the work on Lake Edku.
Barsik Fish Farm: Staff structure
Director
Deputy Director (vacant)
Engineers (6)
Mechanics/Drivers (22)
Casual labourers (50)
Fisherman (1)
Seasonally employed fishermen (10)
Administrators (4)
The stocking programme involves stocking with grass carp on first filling the pond in October/November or December, after the post-harvest preparation. Mullet fry (mixture of M. cephalus and M. capito) are added in March when these become available from the coastal waters. In May common carp are stocked. Present stocking rates are variable and low; typically grass carp (20–500 g) 50/ha; mullet (0.5 g) 12,000/ha; common carp (0.5 g) 2 000/ha. Tilapia is mostly stocked by uncontrolled inward migration from the canals.
Harvesting takes place in October to February. The small size of the mullet and carp implies a low survival rate and presumably the ponds are stocked well below their carrying capacity towards the end of the growing season.
The target stocking rate is 25 000 fish/ha. This will require some 10 million mullet fry, 3 million carp and a freely available supply of tilapia. It appears that at present there is a shortfall of seed fish available from the local hatcheries.
About 1 600 t of food (cotton seed, rice and corn bran) are needed each year and difficulty has been experienced in obtaining this quantity.
It was reported that the farm achieved an average gross production of 1 000 kg/ha for the 1984 production cycle. However, no detailed records have been available to assess the production of individual species.
Considering the relatively short time that the facility has been functioning, there is evidence of a lack of maintenance, both on the pond complex (Erosion effects, damaged fish screens, etc.) and in the infrastructure (accommodation and pump houses).
