RIYADH: The first catch of shrimps hit the local markets in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province on Tuesday to mark the start of the shrimp-hunting season, which begins on the first day of August each year and lasts for six months. Amer bin Ali Al-Mutairi, director general of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture in the region, said that the ministry was keen to preserve natural resources while working on making stocks sustainable. He added that the ban on shrimp fishing for half of the year aimed at giving the shrimp colony the opportunity to reproduce and preserve numbers. He said that the ministry’s Eastern Province branch was continuing to issue shrimp fishing permits to all shrimp boats along the region’s coast, which extends from Al-Khafji in the north to Uqair in the south of Al-Ahsa. Waleed Alshwared, head of fish farms at the Fisheries Research Center of the Eastern Province, said that 10,000 tons of shrimps were caught in the province during the 2022 season. He expected that the cost of 16 kg would be around SR400 ($106) for small shrimps this time, SR500 for medium-sized, SR700 for large, and SR1,000 for the biggest size. Salah Al-Muhaishi, a fish and shrimp salesman, said that allowing shrimp fishing following the six-month ban was a wise course of action, adding that the season was an opportunity for fishermen, traders and shoppers.