The project entitled 'Breeding of Wild Trout for Release into Rivers within Forests' established by the Directorate of the Environmental Protection and National Parks Agency, is drawing to a close. The Director of the Agency, Ahmet Özyanık told press the project began in 2005 as an attempt to save the red spotted trout, which was then threatened with extinction due to over fishing.

 

At the beginning of 2006 mature female fish were taken from rivers in Black Sea provinces and moved to the Ministry's Altındere Trout Breeding Centre in Maçka, near Trabzon, where they stayed until it was time to breed. Özyanık went on to say that in the early years mature female fish were taken from rivers in Artvin, Ardahan, Giresun, Ordu, Rize and Trabzon and all of these fish were used to breed.

 

As the years went by, and the project's reputation grew, more and more fish arrived and now a total of ten provinces have donated mature female fish which have to be carefully kept in spearate pools to avoid any mixing of breeds. Özyanık explained that when the hatchlings reach an average length of 5cm they are released into the same water from which their mothers were caught. This year egg collection began on 18 October, and there are now almost 1.2 million eggs in stock. The work will continue until the end of January 2012 by which time Özyanık estimates they will have over 1.5 million eggs.

 

Özyanık spoke about the positive results and said next year more hatchlings will be released into rivers and went on: “General evaluation of the project shows that starting from 200,000 hatchlings, we have now grown to more than our original target of 1 million young fish, being released into the same rivers from which mature females that provided the eggs were taken.”

 

The Minister, Veysel Eroğlu'nun, congratulated the Directorate of the Agency for their efforts to repopulate the rivers with wild trout and for the sensitive fashion in which the project had been carried out, he said: “this project has educated local people living in the countryside about the importance of these fish, it has encouraged them not to over fish and to see the fish as a resource for the future.”