How a farm in Fujairah gets fish from sea to shop in 24 hours

It starts with a team of fishermen taking to the water every morning at 5am

What are you doing each morning at 5am? Chances are most of us are fast asleep, hours away from starting our day.

For fishermen in Fujairah, it's a different story.

At 5am a team from Crown Farms are on board making their way out to sea to catch fresh fish that will be in shops within 24 hours.

The Fujairah-based organic farm management company has teamed up with Carrefour to introduce locally grown sea bream across its supermarkets in the UAE.

“It takes 24 hours from harvest in the morning to reach the shelf,” said Adrian Galben, general manager at Crown Farms, as he gave The National a tour of the floating sea farm.

“A consumer can have access to fresh fish within 24 hours versus imports which usually take three days.”

At the farm off the coast of Fujairah, 14 massive circular metal cages float close to each other in the open sea. Inside these cages, submerged in the pristine waters of the Gulf of Oman, baby sea bream are harvested over a period of just more than a year before they grow big enough to be packed up for market.

As the waves crash into the metal mesh and yellow buoys wobble up and down, a noisy flock of birds hovers over the cages, looking for fish.

But they are covered with a net to keep the predators away.

“Each cage is capable of holding on average 30 metric tonnes of fish,” Mr Galben said.

“And a year’s production accumulates to an average of 500 metric tonnes of local sea bream being produced in Fujairah.”

A diver from Crown Farms prepares for action. Suhail Akram / The National

The team working at 5am includes specialists, a diver, a person who feeds the fish and other members who scrape off barnacles from the metal cages and do other maintenance work.

“The diver goes to the bottom of a cage to check for any dead fish and analyses the causes. He also checks the integrity of the cage, because we have predators above and outside the cage that are gunning for our fish,” Mr Galben said.

Even though he is wearing a wet suit and has a full tank of oxygen, the diver’s job is challenging, jumping into a cage that is covered from all sides.

Does fear creep in? “No. I have been doing it for many years. I sometimes do five to six dives a day,” said Shams, the diver, with a smile.

While Shams is in the water, another member of the team feeds the fish in the next cage, creating a frenzy as the fish jostle to grab their meal.

“By working with one of the region’s biggest and trusted retailers, we believe our market reach, representation and impact through Carrefour will prove vital as local customers embrace and enjoy a high-quality seafood product made right here in the UAE,” said Mr Galben.

Carrefour, operated by Majid Al Futtaim in the UAE, said the partnership was a big step towards bolstering food security by supporting local producers.