The Fisheries Agency yesterday announced the preliminary results of the nation’s largest fish stocking and tracking program, which released 560,000 fish this year and retrieved 107 of them. The information gathered from retrieved fish is to be analyzed to study ocean ecology and fisheries sources.
The four-year program is part of the agency’s “blue economy” project in coastal areas, which aims to release an additional 2 million young fish in the next three years to determine whether various artificially grown fish can survive and reproduce in a natural environment, while also assessing the effects of fish stocking on the replenishment of natural stocks, agency Director-General Tsay Tzu-yaw (蔡日曜) said.
Five fish species — tautog, silver seabream, snubnose pompano, mangrove red snapper and Indian salmon — were chosen for massive egg production and release due to their rapid growth and high survival rates, as well as their habitat selection, with a total of 560,000 fish released this year, National Taiwan Ocean University professor Liao Cheng-hsin (廖正信) said.
To establish a fish tracking system, each fish egg was fitted with a T-shaped marker before release and 107 fish have been retrieved over the past six months, Liao said
The seemingly small number was remarkable in such a short time frame, as the retrieval rate of released fish stocks is generally less than 2 percent and only adult fish measuring more than 20cm are retrieved, Liao added.
The preliminary results indicated that artificially bred fish could survive and reproduce in a natural environment, judging from the developed sexual gland of some retrieved fish, he said.
Tautog released at a harbor in Miaoli County have been spotted across the western coast from Taichung to New Taipei City, allowing researchers to map out the population distribution of the fish and other stocks, he said.
Definite program data is to be finalized in four years, when all released fish are to reach sexual maturity, he said, calling on fishermen to return fish attached with markers to the agency for research.
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