The festival season starts every year when the hareed fish (parrotfish) appear in the shallow waters in huge numbers in the Al-Hasis gulf.
The contest is to catch the largest number of hareed within a stipulated time.
The prince distributed prizes and medals to the 10 winners.
In his speech on the occasion, Prince Muhammad called on businessmen to invest in tourist projects that help revive island’s heritage, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday.
As part of the centuries old fishing contest in the island, trained fishermen place special nets in the narrow gulf called Daur to drive the fish swarms toward the shore. When the fishermen drag the net the fishes come close to the shallow shore where people, waiting with their small nets, can haul in their catch. The fishermen make big hauls as the fish do not resist or harm the netters in the shallow.
The fish that grows up to 40 cm comes to the island only during this season of the year and lives mostly in coral reefs.
The fish gets its name from the numerous teeth that are arranged in a tightly packed mosaic on the external surface of the jawbones, forming a parrot-like beak.
Protecting the parrotfish is proposed as a way of saving coral reefs from being overgrown with seaweed.