The Impact and Role of Shrimp Trawling Fishery for Kuwait's Seafood Security

ABSTRACT Shrimp trawling contributes to seafood supply for coastal communities, but it also captures high amounts of non‐target species (i.e., bycatch), which are often discarded. While one solution to address problematic bycatch is to ban trawling, the consequence may be severe on seafood security (i.e., availability and affordability), particularly in places where alternatives to local seafood are limited. Here, we underscore this trade‐off by examining the controversial Kuwait's shrimp‐trawling fishery, which is causing serious concerns because of its excessive amount of bycatch. Yet, far less attention is directed towards the contribution of shrimp trawling to seafood security. To help create a more nuanced understanding, we analyse available evidence on the impacts of shrimp trawling—namely, discard rates and composition of bycatch—as well as its contribution to Kuwait's seafood. We show that the total annual discard rate in Kuwait is ∼80%; shrimp trawling is responsible for an average of 55%, while other major contributors are gillnets (21%) and lines (11%). The total discarded bycatch from shrimp trawling mostly comprises species that can be categorised as juveniles of low economic value. On the other hand, shrimps are the most important species in terms of landing amount and landed value (both up to 30%). Trawling plays an important role in Kuwait's seafood security, particularly given three main aspects: (i) negligible aquaculture production; (ii) precipitous declines in some of the main local fish stocks; and (iii) increasing dependency on fish imports. Finally, we discuss the consequences of a trawling ban and highlight gear modification as a simple, implementable and customizable solution to help support Kuwait's seafood security with less bycatch.