ROMANIA
Piscicola Adrian SA
Juggling conservation with commercial requirements Piscicola Adrian, a company run by Ioan Ghere, a lawyer by profession, has 300 ha of ponds, in which different species of carp as well as small quantities of other freshwater ďŹ sh are cultivated. The ďŹ sh is sold primarily on the domestic market.
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he main species farmed at Piscicola Adrian is common carp. In addition, small quantities of silver carp, pike perch, European catfish, pike, the ubiquitous crucian carp, paddlefish, and sterlet. Production in total currently amounts to about two hundred tonnes a year. The farm has the capacity to produce more, says Mr Ghere, but this also calls for more capital, which is a constraint.
Predators must be accomodated The farm is part of a Natura 2000 area implying that wildlife must be conserved and partly as a result Mr Ghere has immense problems with predators, both feathered and furred. The worst offenders are the cormorants, but other fish-eating birds as well as otters are also responsible for significant damage. Mr Ghere claims that losses in the stocking ponds amount to some 80 of the juveniles that are introduced there. There are periods when we have 1,000 to 1,200 cormorants on and around the farm together with other predatory birds like herons. The problem is that on Natura 2000 sites birds and other wildlife must not only be tolerated, but it is also forbidden – at least in Romania – to scare them away, for example, by using gunshots, other loud noises, or even ultrasound.
According to Catalin Platon, executive director of the Romanian Fish Farmers’ Association, while it is permitted in other EU countries to scare or even cull the birds, in Romania it is forbidden. Farmers here are therefore at a disadvantage compared with their counterparts in countries where combating cormorants is allowed. In addition, farmers are expected to absorb much of the losses caused by the predators as they are not compensated adequately. Mr Ghere adds that the problem of predators is part of the reason why production is lagging capacity not only on his farm, but in the Romanian sector as a whole. In Satu Mare, where the farm is located winters are not especially severe and the ponds do not freeze over for more than a few weeks. Ponds that are not frozen attract birds, so in winter too there is no respite from the threat they pose. The birds prey on the earlystage fish of 100-200 g. In 2013 Mr Ghere closed the farm to carry out a series of renovations and now he is experimenting with larger-sized fish of 400-600 g as stocking material. Classical carp farming involves a three-year cycle. In the first year the fish grow to 35-70 g, in the second to 350-400 g, and in the third year the fish reach 1.5 to 2.5 kg. In the first two years the fish are vulnerable to avian predators – a fish of even 500 g is no match for a cormorant.
The fish are loaded in to the net and are weighed by a weighing machine attached to the crane.
Pond renovation with EFF and EMFF support The farm has existed since 1970, when it had an area of 100 ha, but by 1980 it had expanded to 300 ha. Before the political changes in 1989 the farm was state-owned with its headquarters in Brasov, over 400 km away. In 1998 it was separated from Brasov and became an independent entity that was privatised in 2002. Mr Ghere’s tenure as owner started in 2006 and a
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year later the farm was declared a Natura 2000 site. EFF funds were used to renovate part of the farm in 2010 and now he is waiting for the decision on another application to renovate a further 75 ha covering two ponds. The project also envisages the purchase of nets and transport vans. Renovating the ponds can entail a lot of work. At Piscicola Adrian the walls of the ponds are reinforced with stone and raised in height, and the slope is reshaped. The work &VSPl TI .BHB[JOF