Syed Hussein Al -Qassab
The Shura Council discusses the report of the Public Utilities and Environment Committee regarding a draft law to amend some provisions of Decree Law No. (20) of 2002 regarding the regulation of hunting, exploitation and protection of marine wealth, which includes the transfer of expertise related to fishing activity through generations, and encouraging Bahraini youth to engage in professions related to fishing, which is prepared based on the proposal of the law presented by the House of Representatives.
The draft law aims to preserve the hunting craft, transfer the experiences related to fishing activity through generations, encourage Bahraini youth to engage in professions associated with hunting, and enable the Bahraini fisherman to accompany no more than three people who are close to the third degree, with the aim of training in commercial fishing.
The committee indicated that accompanying any Bahraini by the Bahraini captain (Al -Noukhada) is coupled with the approval of the employer and the competent administration, according to that the Bahraini captain (Al -Noukhada) is the actual leader of the ship, while the owner of the ship, it is not necessarily that the owner of the fishing license must be, the ship may be rented according to what was stated in Article (6) of the Decree of the Window Law.
She added that the requirement of the employer’s approval is necessary as the one who bears legal responsibility in the event that a member of the ship’s crew violates the provisions of the law and the decisions implemented to him, in accordance with the text of Article (3) of the Decree of the Law.
The committee proposed a text that excludes the term relative, and the passport was limited to taking any Bahraini as more comprehensive and more general of kin, and that relatives or relatives may not be citizens of the Kingdom of Bahrain, which removes the draft law from one of its basic goals, which is to encourage Bahraini youth to engage in professions related to fishing.
She pointed out that the Bahraini accompanying the purpose of training should be outside the upper limit of the number of members of the fishing ship, and in this regard to the safety requirements and the upper limits of the crew members according to the size of the fishing ship, which was identified in the table attached to Resolution No. (4) of 2025, and the training period does not exceed 6 months, and that the number of trainees does not exceed one person at one time.
For its part, the government, within the opinion note attached to the draft law, expressed its hope to reconsider the draft law, and reported a number of observations towards it, as it indicated that it is in principle with the desired goals of the bill, and its purposes that it aims to achieve in the field of preserving the fishing profession and transferring experiences related to that activity for generations, and encouraging Bahraini youth to engage in professions related to fishing, which contributes to the province On the marine environment and fish wealth.
She indicated that the purpose of the draft law comes to preserve the fishing craft as a social and civilized heritage, and to open the way to teach the skills of that profession for the successive generations that you want to learn and work in a prelude to transporting fishing licenses to it, by enabling the Bahraini fisherman to accompany his relatives during the practice of commercial fishing on the fishing ship.
The government emphasized that this end is already achieved on the ground through Ministerial Resolution No. (322) of 2021 regarding the controls and procedures for transporting marine fishing licenses from one person to another.
She referred to administrative decision No. (2) of 2022 of the Fish Resources Department at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture regarding the identification of Bahraini workers on the back of fishing vessels, according to which the Bahraini fisherman is allowed to accompany those who see it appropriate to work on the ship from Bahraini workers, according to the length of hunting vessels or boats that are not more than (4) people.
In turn, the Supreme Council for the Environment affirmed that he adheres to the government’s opinion, where he made it clear that the desire was achieved in light of a legislative tool based on the issuance of Resolution No. (4) of 2025 regarding the Bahraini fisherman’s license to practice commercial marine fishing, which aims to protect the public interest, which is to organize commercial fishing licenses in a tight and studied manner.
