(Bangkok) Thailand announced Tuesday that it had caught no less than 1,300 tonnes of black tilapia in seven months, an increasingly invasive species of fish that the country is trying to eradicate.
Appearing in the kingdom in 2010, this freshwater fish originating from West Africa, whose presence is now confirmed in 19 of the country’s 76 provinces, is destroying ecosystems with serious consequences for the fishing industry.
From February to August, 1,332 tonnes of black tilapia were caught, both “in natural water” and “in breeding ponds”, according to the parliamentary commission responsible for combating the spread of this fish.
“We spoke to locals and found that the spread of tilapia has gotten worse: they found it in small canals, which was not the case before,” MP Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, its vice-president, told AFP.
The Thai government made eradication of the species a national priority in July and encouraged people to fish for it, offering 5 baht ($0.42) per kilogram. They also encouraged consumption.
Authorities have also released predatory species in an attempt to combat it and are developing a genetically modified individual to produce sterile offspring.
The impact of the tilapia spread, which accelerated from 2018, is estimated at at least 10 billion baht ($293 million), Mr Nattacha said.
The species, also found in Florida (United States) and the Philippines, reproduces very quickly and destroys ecosystems by swallowing small fish, shrimp and snail larvae.
A parliamentary inquiry is underway to determine how the species arrived in Thailand, Mr Nattacha said.