5 Aquaculture Monitoring

Monitoring is defined in the EU Regulation 882/2004 as conducting “a planned sequence of observations or measurements with a view to obtaining an overview of the state of compliance with feed or food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.” Aquaculture monitoring in Oman is at the initial development stage, as only one commercial project exists in Oman.

Three departments in the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries are responsible for aquaculture monitoring—the Directorate of Aquaculture Development, Aquaculture Centre and Fish Quality Centre.
The involvement of each department depends on the type of monitoring. The Directorate of Aquaculture Development monitors the production process and environment, the Aquaculture Centre monitors the fish health and the Fish Quality Centre monitors quality of the fish during the cultivation and quality of the final product and residue plans. Therefore, efforts have been made to harmonize and coordinate the work of these departments.

One team was established for monitoring which included members from the three departments with the lead of the Directorate of Aquaculture Development as the focal point for aquaculture monitoring. The team will have the competences for all the steps of an aquaculture project development:
• farm construction,
• preharvesting production process,
• best aquaculture practices,
• environmental follow-up,
• disease control,
• postharvesting production process,
• consumers health.
Guidelines for aquaculture monitoring have been prepared by the three departments. This guideline contains the detailed mechanisms for the work of a monitoring team before, during and after any inspection visit. It contains also the necessary tests required during the inspection visit. The guideline also specifies the type of monitoring, such as full inspection for renewal of the license, inspection for first approval, inspection during construction (new farm or farm modification), periodic programmed inspections and random spot checks. Different inspection forms have also been prepared in this guideline depending on the type of aquaculture facilities such as hatchery, shrimp farms, fish farms—tanks onshore, fish farms—cages offshore, abalone farms—RAS, shellfish farms, and seaweed farms. There are also forms for feed mills and fish processing plants if they exist on the farm.