LATVIA
Fish resource restocking in Latvia
Century-old activity gets a makeover Currently, we stand at a point, when we must look back, assess our implementation of the long-term fish restocking programme, appreciate where we are today and look ahead, envisage the direction, and take the next steps to maintain sustainable and diverse fish resources in Latvia’s inland waters.
T
he Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment (BIOR) is currently the most significant juvenile fish producer in the Eastern Baltic region, primarily fulfilling the state’s fish resource restocking programme. Every year, the institute releases juveniles and fry of various fish species into Latvian public waters. The most important species that supplement natural stocks are salmon, sea trout, vimba, river lamprey, and pikeperch.
Restocking helps to maintain natural stocks of fish Every year, the state fish farms, Tome, Karli, Dole, and Pelci, release an average of 700,000
one-year-old salmon smolts, 260,000 one-year-old sea trout smolts, 16,000 two-year-old sea trout smolts, and 1,140,000 pikeperch, vimba, and whitefish fingerlings. In addition to the mentioned species, the institute is also involved in releasing eel and periodically restocks pike. Among other countries, Latvia is unique because each year natural stocks are supplemented with approximately 13,000,000 river lamprey fry. Migrating lamprey spawners are translocated upstream across the dams to the areas with natural spawning sites. Besides, the institute participates in the reintroduction programme for Baltic sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus. For private Latvian aquaculture companies and pond farms the institute raises rainbow
Ivars Putviķis, manager of the fish farm, Tome, of the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment, BIOR.
trout, sturgeon, pikeperch, and carp fingerlings. The current scale and quality of juvenile production did not appear overnight but have been achieved through prolonged work and knowledge transfer through generations of scientists and practitioners.
The centenary of the Tome Fish Farm approaches The Tome fish farm was established in 1929 after the reorganisation of the previously fragmented structure of the sector. At that time, Latvia had a planned comprehensive national electrification plan as an interest in the preservation of salmon stocks. The state established Tome fish farm near the planned hydroelectric
power station site Ķegums. Initially, the farm used water from the Pruupe spring, later water was drawn from the Licupe River, but since 1984 the Daugava River via the HPP reservoir has served as the natural water source for the nursery. An interesting aside is that in the early 1930s, when the main means of transportation were trains, horse-drawn carriages, and the first automobiles, Latvian fish farmers exported salmon and whitefish eggs to supplement wild fish stocks as far away as Germany, Netherlands, and France. A century ago, salmon and sea trout were only raised till the fry stage. It took significant and prolonged scientific work to understand how to grow the fish to
Santa Purviņa, senior researcher at the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment, BIOR.
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