Reservoirs Fisheries Development and its Trade-off s with Conservation of Natural Fish Genetic Resources

Abstract

The reservoirs spread across India are ideal water resources for fi sh production at very low input costs through
environmentally safer and socially equitable manner. Nevertheless, the present fi sh production from the reservoirs
is about one-third of its estimated potential. Enhanced capture fi sheries, culture-based fi sheries and recently
cage culture systems are being implemented to bridge this gap, where stocking or artifi cial recruitment is the
essential management tool. The stocked fi shes can, at some stage or other, interfere with the natural ecosystem
processes and have trade-off s with conservation of natural fi sh genetic resources, mainly of the rivers on which
the reservoirs are built. Though it is diffi cult to prescribe a totally safe stocking protocol from a genetic point
of view, scientifi cally sound strategies need to be put in place to minimize the adverse impacts of stocking.
This paper focuses on the potential adverse impacts of stocking and suggests means that can help minimize its
adverse impacts on the fi sh genetic resources.