Thailand announced on Tuesday, September 3, that it had caught no less than 1,300 tons of black tilapia in seven months, an increasingly invasive fish species that the country is working to eradicate.
This freshwater fish, originally from West Africa and now documented in 19 of the country’s 76 provinces, was discovered in the Kingdom in 2010 and is destroying ecosystems, with serious consequences for the fish farming industry.
From February to August, 1,332 tons of black tilapia were caught, both “in natural water” that “in breeding ponds”according to the parliamentary commission in charge of combating the spread of this fish. “We spoke to locals and discovered that the spread of tilapia has worsened: they were found in small canals, which was not the case before”reported its vice president, Representative Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat.
National priority
In July, the Thai government made eradication of the species a national priority and encouraged people to fish it, offering 5 baht ($0.42) per kilo. It also encouraged its consumption.
Authorities have also released predatory species to try to combat it and are developing a genetically modified individual to produce sterile offspring.
The species, also observed in Florida (United States) or the Philippines, reproduces very quickly and destroys ecosystems by phagocytosing small fish, shrimp and snail larvae.
The impact of the tilapia spread, which accelerated from 2018, is estimated to be at least 10 billion baht ($293 million), Nattacha said. A parliamentary inquiry is underway to determine how the species reached Thailand.
