ALBANIA
The Stacioni i Linit hatchery plays an important role in keeping koran stocks stable
Restocking efforts maintain a valuable fishery Along the eastern edge of Albania, where it borders Macedonia and Greece, are three lakes; Lake Ohrid, and the greater and lesser Prespa Lakes. Lake Ohrid, the largest of the three, is shared by Albania and Macedonia, with about a third of the approximately 350 sq. km surface area on the Albanian side of the border.
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ne of the characteristics of the Lake Ohrid is that it is home to a species of trout, Salmo letnica that is not found anywhere else in the world. Locally the fish is called the koran and like other members of the trout family it is a popular table fish. It has a silvery body with marked black spots and sometimes red spots along the lateral line as well. As a unique species the government is keen to ensure that it does not become extinct due to overfishing or environmental depredation and thus supports a programme to restock the Lake Ohrid with koran fingerlings each year. This maintains the stock while allowing a small scale fishery that removes some 15 tonnes of koran each year from the lake.
Albania, Macedonia both contribute to restocking efforts The institution responsible for the restocking of koran is the government hatchery in Pogradec, Stacioni i Linit, overseen by Ms Celnike Shegani. It is an indigenous species that is also the symbol of the city, she says, and is special because it is only found in the Lake Ohrid. Both Albania and Macedonia, which share the lake, are interested in maintaining and improving the stock of the fish and are 32
Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2015
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collaborating on the stock management efforts. On the Albanian side these efforts are not just based on the importance of maintaining biodiversity, but fulfil a legal obligation, Albania’s fisheries law, which calls for the sustainable management of the stock. Each year therefore the hatchery releases several thousand fingerlings into the lake. The restocking activities go some way towards mitigating the pressure on the koran stock both from the legitimate commercial fishery by registered fishers as well as from the small rural communities that live around the lake and maintain a subsistence fishery that targets koran among other species. The Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, and Water Resources which supports the hatchery’s efforts expects around a million fingerlings to be released each year. This is not always possible says Ms Shegani for a variety of reasons. But this figure is over and above the natural reproduction of the koran. While the restocking efforts are going ahead Ms Shegani feels that they alone are not enough. We need to improve our management of the fishery, to work with the registered fishermen to prevent fishing by unregistered fishers and illegal activities including the use of prohibited fishing gear or nets
Celnike Shegani is responsible for the Stacioni i Linit hatchery. Her main task is to oversee the restocking of Lake Ohrid with koran (Salmo letnica), an endemic species not found elsewhere in the world.
with mesh sizes that are under the legal minimum. Altogether, Ms Shegani says, there are about 140 fishing licenses issued for the lake. Each license covers a vessel with two people so the number of legitimate fishers is in fact 280. These fishers target some of the 17 species that are present in the lake, of which 10 are endemic including the koran and a species of carp. Of the 17 species, the most commercially valuable is the koran. Total annual catches amount to some 15 tonnes of fish a year, however this refers naturally only to the official catches; the volumes of illegal catches are by definition difficult to estimate. The licences entitles the fishers to fish in certain parts of the lake, but without limits on the amount of fish that can be caught.
Broodstock stripped in the wild The restocking efforts start at the end of the year when from 1 December to 1 March the fishery is closed as this is the time of the natural reproduction of the fish, not only the koran but also other species. This ban on fishing activity is enforced by government fish inspectors who patrol the lake in the different districts to ensure that nobody is defying the prohibition. The only exception is a small group of 14 experienced fishers who are allowed to fish for a particular reason: to capture, without damaging, the koran broodstock and to bring the fish to the edge of the lake, where technicians from the hatchery receive the fish. www.eurofishmagazine.com