Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 20
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Fishers in Iran’s northern province of Mazandaran have pinned hopes on cages amid fears over the emerging risk of the resource depletion.
According to the provincial officials, the volume of fishery production in the northern provinces of Iran has experienced a dramatic fall of 63 percent over the recent decade dropping to 11,000 tons per year.
Therefore, local fishers in Mazandaran province to overcome the environmental and economic challenges have set up about 100 cages for fish farming.
The plan for farming fishes in cages was launched about seven years ago and it is expected to create 27,000 job opportunities in the province.
Currently, about 10,000 individuals make a living through fishing in the province, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), the official rolling-news TV channel, reported.
The annual output of the cages is estimated at about 3,500 tons and the figure is projected to reach 45,000 tons by 2021 and eventually 90,000 tons by 2025.
Iran in total has located 350 cages for farming fishes in sea which produced about 10,350 tons over the last fiscal year (ended March 20). Mazandaran accounted for about 1,500 tons of the total figure.
While the official studies have proved that the province has an annual capacity for producing about 200,000 tons of fish in cages, Mazandaran has farmed only about 76,000 tons over the past seven years.
Iran annually produces about one million tons of fish of which 360,000 tons are farmed in the cages. The country exported $412 million worth of fishery products over the last fiscal year.