August 5, 2024

Thailand to spend US$12.7 million on controlling spread of non-indigenous tilapia

Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives plans to spend ฿450 million (US$12.7 million) of its annual budget on dealing with the spread in watercourses of Blackchin tilapia, a non-indigenous species of fish from Africa.

The fish presents a significant problem which is expected to be resolved within four years, according to Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompao.

Thammanat said on July 30 that the Fisheries Department has been trying to contain the spread of the species for several years already, but without success due to a lack of cooperation from the public and private sectors.

He said that the department has now invited several stakeholders, including representatives of fishermen, fish, and shrimp farmers, for discussions over improved measures to deal with the problem. These include a catch-and-destroy campaign to reduce the population of in Blackchin tilapia in Thailand's watercourses (with a target to catch four million kilogrammes of the fish by the middle of next year), the release of predatory fish species (such as Asian seabass), to eliminate Blackchin tilapia fry, turning caught fish into bio compost, animal feed and fermented fish, educating members of the public about how to monitor the volume of the fish in watercourses in their communities and how to prevent them from spreading, and the sterilisation of the fish to prevent them from breeding.

- Thai PBS World