Despite russia's war against Ukraine, the state is contributing to the future of the fishing industry by restoring fish populations in water bodies, the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy reports.
According to the State Fisheries Agency, comfortable weather conditions, rising water temperatures and sufficient oxygen content have created favourable conditions for the start of stocking in water bodies. Work to replenish water bodies with new generations of valuable fish species began in Poltava region in particular.
Thus, with the support of the Poltava Regional Water Authority, 26 thousand juvenile fish have already been stocked into the Kamianske Reservoir in Kremenchuk district: 22.9 thousand specimens of silver carp and 3.7 thousand specimens of carp weighing almost 5 tonnes. Another 3.6 thousand silver carp and almost 1 thousand white carp with a total weight of 810 kg were stocked in the Sukhyi Kahamlyk River.
The stocking was carried out by the Scientific Centre for Ecological and Social Research at the expense of the Kremenchuk City Council in accordance with the Environmental Protection Programme of the Kremenchuk Territorial Community for the period 2021-2025.
It is noted that all the fish raised in the Irkliyivskyi herbivorous fish nursery were two years old. This provides it with a high chance of survival in the natural environment of water bodies.
In addition, according to the agency, domestic aquaculturists received 50 tonnes of fish feed from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). The feed was handed over to Ukrainian salmon fish producers on 29 March in the Lviv region.
The feed was distributed as part of a programme to support salmon farmers. Aquaculturists from 14 regions of Ukraine submitted 31 applications through the State Agrarian Register, with the largest number coming from Zakarpattia and Dnipro regions.
The programme selected 13 companies that met the criteria to receive assistance in the form of fish feed. As a result, the winners received about 3.8 tonnes of feed for different age groups of fish species and different phases of production.
It is also noted that the total volume of aquaculture production in 2023 increased by 4.3% to 15,271 tonnes.
Carp remain the traditional aquaculture target: common carp – 7123 tonnes and herbivorous fish species such as white silver carp – 1551 tonnes, variegated silver carp – 1458 tonnes, their hybrids – 941 tonnes, and white amur – 472 tonnes.
In addition to carp, Ukrainian aqua farmers also produced 305 tonnes of rainbow trout, 192 tonnes of catfish, 177 tonnes of pike, 580 tonnes of pike perch, 12 tonnes of sterlet, 9 tonnes of sturgeon, 86 tonnes of American char, etc.
Last year, Cherkasy (2698 tonnes), Khmelnytskyi (1494 tonnes), Lviv (1191 tonnes), Ternopil (1005 tonnes) and Sumy (961 tonnes) regions were the leaders in aquaculture production.