KATHUA: Director Fisheries, Bashir Ahmed Bhat today kick started the annual stocking of fish Seed of different varieties in Ranjit Sagar Dam Reservoir here at Reservoir Fisheries Development Project ( RFDP) Satwain.
Joint Director, Central Mohammed Manzoor Wani; CPO National Fish Seed Farm, Gopal Krishan; SPO NFSF, Kulbhushan Verma; AD Fisheries, Lal Hussain; PO Pawan Paul Sharma; HQ Officer Mohammed Shabir and other concerned were also present.
Fish Seed of different varieties of Indian Major Carps( IMC) and exotic carps like Rohu, Mrigal, Catla, Common carp and silver carp was stocked in thr Reservoir. Approximately 10 lakh fry and advanced fries of different species were stocked in the first leg of the annual stocking exercise.
Speaking on the occasion, the Director said the Department of Fisheries is the sole agency responsible for development of fisheries within the UT of J&K. There are a good number of infrastructure in the shape of seed producing farms, fish rearing units, fish production facilities in the shape of hatcheries and farms both in the private and government sector established by the Fisheries department, he added.
He said, “it is with the efforts of the department that fish production of the UT has touched 20.09 thousand tonnes ( approx) which is being harvested by the most downtrodden community of the society- the mahigeer community which constitute about 75% to 80% of the total fish production. The rest of the production comes from government as well as private farms and from the world famous trout angling.”
“The department of fisheries takes care of the sustenance of naturally occurring biomass of various fish species which are commercially important both in natural water bodies as well as in captive rearing,” he added.
While elaborating the fishing scenario of the UT of J&K, the Director said scores of Mahigeer families are associated with captures of fish from natural water resources including rivers, reservoirs and other bigger and small water bodies. “As such it is the responsibility of the department to take care of these water bodies for their sustenance in respect of fish biomass which serves as direct means of livelihood for more than 1,20000 souls” he maintained.
He said the National level Fish Seed farms have been established by the department for carp seed production one each at Jammu- National Fish Seed Farm, Kathua and one at Srinagar- National Fish Seed Farm Manasbal in addition to other big and small seed producing farm like Fish Farm Ghoumanasan for Carp fish. The department has also established one of Asia’s biggest Trout seed producing farms, Kokernag, Trout seed Producing farm, Dachigam, Ganderbal, Khag, Magan etc.
The Director said, the best way of consumption of natural water resources is by way of stocking with quality, disease resistant varieties of fish Seed. The department is adopting conservation measures by way of augmentation with fish Seed as a measure method in addition to watch and ward for curving illegal fishing, he added.