Salmon swim in the desert of Dubai

In the desert of Dubai, thousands of salmon fish grown in the ponds from the North Sea swim despite high temperatures in the Gulf emirate. From a small control room inside a closed land surface facility, an employee at Fish Farm reproduces the same natural conditions in Norway that allow the production of the best salmon, while the temperature in the ponds changes as needed to remain the same as in Norway. According to the executive director in charge of the farm, Badr bin Mubarak, growing salmon in the desert “is unimaginable, and this is what we are doing in Dubai.”

“We mimic the sunrise and sunset, the tides, a strong stream and a simple river, and we also mimic deep water and shallow water,” he told AFP. Fish Farm says it is the first global company to grow salmon for commercial consumption on land entirely on a farm on the southern border of the wealthy emirate. In the four ponds, salmon swim, while the strength and temperature of the water stream, the salinity suitable for its growth, and the reproduction of the appropriate natural factors are controlled. Salmon live in cold waters in countries such as Iceland, Norway, the US state of Alaska and Scotland.

Atlantic salmon production in a country known for its hot weather seems odd. “Providing this environment was the hardest thing we faced,” he says, but he points out that his company has been able to emulate “deep water, strong current as in the ocean, salinity itself and similar water temperature”. Fish Farm has brought 40,000 young salmon from a natural hatching farm in Scotland and thousands of other eggs from Iceland for breeding in their ponds at the facility in Jebel Ali. Salmon fish begin to swim against the current in fresh water, before growing to swim with the current, and then transferred the farm to other ponds filled with sea water. Bin Mubarak stresses that salmon is the “greatest production” of the farm. “The UAE imports about 92% of its fish from outside the country,” he said. “The goal today is to cover what we import from abroad for food security.”

“If a cyclone or a flood occurs in a country (supplying the UAE), the UAE will be able to supply itself and that is the main objective of the project,” he said.