Fewer than one in 20 fisherman operating from Bahrain are actually Bahraini, a top official said.

According to Agriculture and Marine Resources Directorate marine licences acting head Abdulla Isa, 'expatriates are the real fishermen in Bahrain now', reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

'They make up about 96 per cent of fishermen in actuality,' he said.

'The Bahrainis who call themselves fishermen are, for the most part, akin to commercial registration holders when it comes to the fishing licences '“ they don't go out and fish themselves, the expat workers do.'

Isa said that at the last count, more than 6,000 foreign workers were working at sea 'and that's quite enough'.

'In fact, we want to push forward an initiative to ban expatriate fishermen,' he said. 'The problem is that these expat fishermen don't differentiate between what they catch and often don't respect the sea. 'They'll even catch things like jellyfish because they know they can export it to Korea.'

According to the official, it was increasingly common for Bahraini licence holders to only turn up after the fishing boats had returned to dock, take their share of the fish and leave.

'My priority is to have support returned to the 4 per cent or so of fishermen who are actually still practising,' he said. 'If the person hasn't even stepped foot on a boat and only has a fishing licence, they won't be eligible. 'We need to be reasonable and have the real fishermen given full support.'

Support from Tamkeen had recently been stopped in the wake of a bout of incorrectly issued temporary licences, Mr Isa said, but is due to resume this year.

'More than BD629,000 ($1.66 million)was lost in loans, not including subsidiaries, and this just includes the boats, not the dhows,' he said.

'The support comes every two years and is BD3,000 for boats and BD5,000 for banoosh (dhows).

'I've been working at it, but we need to make sure the right people will receive that. 'In the past, some got it three times while others didn't get it at all.

'I want those who haven't been recipients before to get it first, and after that it will be a lottery.'That way people can't accuse anyone of playing favourites or that it's unfair.'

A complete overhaul of the licensing system was also on the cards.

'I want to have a system that links the smart cards to the fishing licence, so that people can't hide or lie,' he said.

'On top of this, I want to change the design of the licences so that they're better and hopefully become a chip-enabled smart card in the future that includes details about the labourers.

'I also want to issue every expat fisherman a card. 'I also want to implement a three strikes rule, where three infractions result in being banned from going out on the water for six months.' – TradeArabia News Service