News
Otar Shamugia pays a visit to the trout farm owned by the Agency of Wildlife in the Imereti region, Kvereti resort
The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Otar Shamugia, visited the trout farm of the Agency of Wildlife in the Imereti region, Kvereti resort, where the National Agency of Wildlife is implementing the project aiming to breed the river trout species included in the “Georgian Red List”.
According to the Minister's directives, infrastructure work on the stream trout farm will begin, bringing the farm to modern standards.
"The conservation and restoration of biodiversity, as well as its maintenance in an ecologically intact condition, is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, and various key initiatives are being conducted to that end. The National Agency of Wildlife is working to restore the brook trout and bring it back to the wild, furthermore, the population of red-listed river trout will increase in the rivers of Georgia by using a similar approach," said Mr. Otar Shamugia.
The Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Yuri Nozadze, and representatives of the Agency accompanied Mr. Otar Shamugia at the Wildlife Agency's trout hatchery, where state officials participated in the river spawning process.
It is worth mentioning that the National Agency of Wildlife of Georgia has been implementing the breeding project of brook trout of the "Red List" species since 2016. The Agency plans to produce half a million whitebaits annually and spawn the rivers. Brook/river trout was included in the "Red List" in 2006 and assigned to the category of vulnerable. There is a similar trend in many European countries, due to which the population is artificially increased and rivers are spawned.
Over a million whitebaits spawned in 98 rivers in various municipalities of Georgia as part of the "Red List" Brook Trout Population Restoration Project.
Releasing hatched brook trout spawn and larvae into the wild is a method that supports the reproduction of a vulnerable species and maximizes the percentage of natural hatching with minimal human intervention.