TURKEY
Central Fisheries Research Institute, Trabzon
Applied research in ďŹ sheries and aquaculture The Central Fisheries Research Institute in Trabzon was established in 1987 as the Trabzon Fisheries Research Institute but was granted central institute status in 1998. Today the institute studies issues surrounding aquaculture and capture ďŹ sheries in the Black Sea and inland waters and ensures the adoption of research results. It also advises the government on strategic measures related to ďŹ sheries management and on aquaculture development.
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he Central Fisheries Research Institute in Trabzon is part of the General Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture under the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The institute has several areas of operations including fisheries management, aquaculture, fish breeding and genetics, fish diseases, and environmental and resource management. Laboratories of international standard and research vessels are among the facilities the institute possesses to carry out its tasks.
Gene bank is unique in Turkey The institute has also invested in a gene bank for fish, the first of its kind in Turkey, that will help to preserve biodiversity by storing genetic material. The National Fisheries Gene Bank of Turkey is tasked with safeguarding the biological wealth of aquatic species in Turkey. The gene bank will therefore collect, catalogue, and document Turkey’s aquatic genetic resources as well as maintain and preserve genetic material for the conservation of endangered species. It will also contribute to ensuring the sustainable exploitation of aquatic resources. 34
The institute supports the aquaculture sector by producing fish juveniles and fish fry. Black Sea salmon, turbot, and sturgeon are species that the institute is breeding for on-growing by the private sector as well as for restocking – the turbot in the Black Sea and the Black Sea salmon and sturgeon into rivers. The Black Sea salmon in particular has to contend with village people who attribute remarkable curative properties to the fish. They catch it to lay the flesh on injuries they have suffered in the hope that they will heal faster.
Monitoring fish stocks is core activity Among the institute’s activities is the monitoring of marine stocks, says Dr Kßcßk, including sprats, anchovies, whiting, turbot, mullet. This work has been ongoing for at least a decade for most of the species and even longer for anchovies. The trends however are more or less the same as those seen for anchovy – a decline in catches. The institute has also been breeding turbot for over 20 years and shares the knowledge acquired with companies and scientists from Turkey and other countries. There is not yet any commercial production of
Dr Ercan KĂźcĂźk, director, and Dr Ahmet Faruk Yesilsu deputy director of the Central Fisheries Research Institute in Trabzon
turbot, says Ahmet Faruk, the deputy director, but we hope that this will change soon. Dr KĂźcĂźk, himself an expert on the breeding of turbot, says that the program to breed turbot goes back to 1997 when it was established in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The breeding programme is intended to develop and expand turbot culture as well as to increase the stock of turbot in the Black Sea. To this end, some 120,000 turbot juveniles have been tagged and released into the Black Sea from different locations along the coast, an activity that is expected to continue with
the release of 10,000 juveniles into the sea each year. By capturing fish that have been released and studying them, the restocking programme contributes to a better understanding of feeding behaviour and migrations patterns of wild turbot, explains Dr Kßcuk. Released fish are tagged so that they can be identified easily when they are caught by fishermen. The institute’s broodstock have a chip embedded in them that contains all the information about the fish. Black Sea salmon is also being bred at the institute as part of research into the selection of fish with desirable traits, in this case,
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