Saudi Arabians Discover a New Pastime--Fishing in a Ditch

A peculiar new weekend recreation has begun in the oasis community of Al Hasa--people go fishing in the drainage ditches.

Fish, unknown here until recent months, are escapees and descendants of experimental fish-raising projects run by the Arabian-American Oil Co. (Aramco) and King Faisal University.

Fish survival in the drainage ditches, through which water runs from the oasis’ irrigated fields, is evidence that fish projects can succeed in the kingdom’s irrigated farming areas, said Rafik Saliba, supervisor of Aramco’s Poultry and Fish Extension units.

Every week, Aramco’s fish farm sends about 200 fish to the oil company’s dining hall at its Dhahran headquarters, where the supply cannot keep up with demand.

The program began in 1982, when Aramco agriculturists pondered what to do with the water that drained off the irrigated fields of Al Hasa. It flows through the drainage ditches to ponds in the desert outside the oasis. Because the water picks up salt from the fields it irrigates, it cannot be used to irrigate a second time.

Aramco scientists settled on raising Tilapia (a genus related to American sunfishes) because the fish can withstand the water’s moderate salt content and the wide variation of water temperature.

At the fish farm, fish live in large, cement tanks filled with water that flows in from the ditches. Most fish, when they reach a little under a pound, are placed in a a tank from which water is drained away. The fish are then scooped into refrigerators and sent to Dhahran.

Some fish are kept in separate tanks for breeding. Saliba said that, although some private farmers may be able to develop their own fish farms and some natural breeding may take place, they may not be able to set up their own high-production hatcheries.