بررسي عملكرد شيلات در برنامه اول و دوم توسعه

A Survey on the Performance of Fisheries in the First and Second Development Plans

Having over 2.7 thousand kilometers of water boundaries, Iran enjoys potentially abundant resources for fisheries industry. These rich sea resources are crucial for Iranʹs economy. This economic sub-sector plays an important role in partially meeting the protein needs, establishing food security, developing foreign exchange revue and promoting employment. Accordingly, the share of this sub-sector in the whole countryʹs employment, national production and non-oil exports was respectively 0.81 , 0.29 and 1.5 percent in 1999. Information on activities, goals and programs of this important economic sub-sector and comparing its performance with what was envisaged for the first and second economic development plans seems to be an effective step for improving the performance and eventually better use of the potentially existent resources in the sub-sector. This paper attempts to survey Iranʹs fisheries performance in the first and second development plans. The results of the study reveals that the its performance was not adequate to meet the requirements for increasing the catching capacity, growing catch amount and extending the consumption of fish and other sea foods. Regarding the area of expanding and renewing the resources, although there was an optimal growth in breeding fish, the growth in the number of fish released into the sea was not suitable in a way that the fishing activities in northern waters of Iran will turn hazardous. Meanwhile, although appropriate investments were done in fisheries area, the lack of experience in the private sector and insufficient efforts for marketing fishery products except for caviar hindered Iranian Fisheries Company from gaining a good share for these products in the framework of national exports.