=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3293/paper99
|storemode=property
|title=The Role of Greek State Hatcheries in Freshwater Aquaculture: A Mini Review Concerning Production Trend, Problems and Future Perspectives of Pella Hydrobiological State Hatchery
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3293/paper99.pdf
|volume=Vol-3293
|authors=Pantelis Pyrgilis,Katerina Melfou,Ioannis A. Giantsis
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/PyrgilisMG22
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==The Role of Greek State Hatcheries in Freshwater Aquaculture: A Mini Review Concerning Production Trend, Problems and Future Perspectives of Pella Hydrobiological State Hatchery==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3293/paper99.pdf
The Role of Greek State Hatcheries in Freshwater Aquaculture:
A Mini Review Concerning Production Trend, Problems and
Future Perspectives of Pella Hydrobiological State Hatchery
Pantelis Pyrgilis 1, Katerina Melfou 1 and Ioannis A. Giantsis 1
1
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Western Macedonia, Florina, 53100, Greece
Abstract
Although aquaculture in Greece is mostly dedicated in marine fish farming, freshwater
aquaculture, mainly rainbow trout farming, has traditionally enacted a crucial role for regional
economy, contributing in counterurbanisation and rural population recovery. Contrariwise to
mariculture, where hatcheries are owned by big companies, freshwater rainbow trout culture
has been largely based on juveniles provided by state hatcheries for decades. This short review
paper presents the main features of Greek state hatcheries with an emphasis on production
trend, role and problems and future perspectives of one of the three major freshwater state
hatchery, namely the Hydrobiological Station of Pella, located in the Region of Central
Macedonia, Greece. The role of state hatcheries in supporting rainbow trout farming has been
proved crucial during the last decades, providing juveniles in new aquaculture units, as well as
supporting the recovery of fish farm units from various damages that led to stock losses. The
main problems of state hatcheries are the reductions in employees and financial recourses, a
fact mostly observed after the economic crisis of the 2010s. Apart from the support to
freshwater aquaculture and introduction that may lead to negative effects, future perspectives
may include research activities in collaboration with Universities and research institutes.
Keywords 1
freshwater aquaculture, Oncorhynchus mykiss, rainbow trout, state hatchery
1. Introduction
The most important branch of world aquaculture is fish farming, which during the last 30 years
presents a more than 10% annual growth rate [1]. It is therefore clear that in response to the increasingly
high demand for fish, in combination with the declining fish supplies from fisheries, fish farming is the
only manner to cover the global fish needs of the 21st century [2].
In line with the Greek coastal topography, marine aquaculture is by far more developed than
freshwater aquaculture in Greece [3]. Indicatively, in the annual report on aquaculture in Greece for
2020, the Federation of Greek Mariculture notes concerning the current situation that “it is worth noting
that fish farmed in sea water represent 98% of the total farmed fish, whereas only 2% comes from
freshwater fish farming, with the main species being rainbow trout, to a lesser extent carp and the
European eel, followed in a very small proportion by aquatic plants such as the cyanobacterium
Spirulina sp. and the macroalgae Ulva sp., which can be used as food supplements, raw material in the
cosmetics industry, biofuels, etc”. However, the peculiarity of inland aquaculture is that it constitutes a
traditional form of primary production and a source of main or supplementary employment and income
for the inhabitants of mountainous and remote mainland areas, while in the Greek lagoons, the
traditional extensive aquaculture is practiced, with special economic and social importance at local level
[4].
Proceedings of HAICTA 2022, September 22–25, 2022, Athens, Greece
EMAIL: ppyrgilhw@hotmail.com (A.1); kmelfou@uowm.gr (A. 2); igiantsis@uowm.gr (A. 3)
ORCID: 0000-0002-6701-9705 (A. 2); 0000-0002-6323-2955 (A. 3)
© 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
496
Despite the fact that the sector of Greek aquaculture is mostly known for marine fish farming with
the largest proportion being export oriented, it should be mentioned that freshwater aquaculture
development is dated back in the 50s, whereas fish mariculture in Greece is more recent, starting in the
80s [3]. Aquaculture can be generally divided into two main phases, with the first being carried out on
land facilities such as fish breeding stations or hatcheries, and the second corresponding to the transfer
of hatched fish juveniles or fingerlings to fish farms where fish grow, up to the market desired size [4].
Keeping this in mind, the fish hatcheries are responsible for a major activity, i.e. hatching and rearing
the early life stages of the farmed fish. While private marine fish farms in Greece have developed their
own hatcheries or are based on the supplement of fish from other private fish farms, a large proportion
of freshwater fish farms in Greece depend on state fish hatcheries for providing fish juveniles and
fingerlings for decades.
This work represents an attempt to investigate the role, history, production trend, limitations and
perspective of the state fish breeding stations, for covering freshwater aquaculture demands in hatched
fish as well as busting recreational fishing by restocking activities in artificial reservoirs.
2. Short History and Scope of the Greek State Hatcheries
The recent history of aquaculture in Greece begins with the establishment and operation of the first
state fish breeding station across the springs of the river Louros in the Region of Epirus close to Ioannina
city in 1951, whereas 14 years later, in 1967, the second state hatchery was established in the Region
of Central Macedonia, close to the city of Edessa. During the 1970s, rainbow trout farming was still the
main form of aquaculture in the country, as marine fish farming appeared only in the early 1980s [5].
According to the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food, in the context of the public policy
for the strengthening of natural resources and the support of aquaculture of freshwater species, the state
hatcheries provide juveniles for free in the following cases:
• New freshwater fish farmers for the first operational year of the unit
• Freshwater fish farmers, whose production has been destroyed by a natural disaster
• Public bodies, Management Bodies and Fisheries Cooperatives for fish restocking purposes in
inland water basins.
Τhe last two decades stocking activities are limited in artificial ecosystems, acknowledging their
negative effects on freshwater ecosystems and especially on wild trout populations. Juveniles of two
species, namely the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, Walbaum1792) and the carp (Cyprinus
carpio, Linnaeus 1758), are produced in the state hatcheries, with the first one being the most important.
3. Pella State Hatchery
Although more public hatcheries for rainbow trout were initially designed by the Greek Ministry of
Rural Development and Food, less were finally developed, and only two are still working, namely Pella
and Ioannina state hatcheries, whereas the third one still working, the Arta state hatchery, produces only
carp and experimentally eel. More specifically, Pella state hatchery (Hydrobiological station of Pella)
was established in 1967, in a poplar forest outside Edessa, on a land plot granted to the Ministry of
Rural Development and Food by the local municipality authorities.
During the next two decades, when several harmful meteorological events and catastrophic factors
were observed that severely affected the rainbow trout farming units in the region, the supporting role
of Pella hatchery was of great importance in a sector-sustaining point of view [6]. Later, nevertheless,
after the 2000s, a downward trend of the majority of public institutions of the Ministry of Rural
Development and Food followed, in terms of employees and resources. Efforts, such as the gradual
reopening or creation of new units, including an attempt towards eel cultivation, were proved
unsuccessful mainly because of the lack of resources and technical support.
Nowadays the Pella hatchery’s facilities provide updates and training programs, while generally
contribute to the support of freshwater aquaculture farms, most of which are small family-type units
without the possibility of employing scientific staff. Also, efforts are being made to apply new methods
for the cultivation of aquatic organisms as well as the reproduction of wild trout. In addition, since
2016, monitoring of fish populations and especially wild ones is performed in various rivers, in
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collaboration with the Fisheries Departments of Imathia, Pella and Grevena Regional Units as well as
the Management Unit of Northern Pindos National Park, aiming to guide public authorities concerning
measures that need to be taken in order to protect riverine and riparian habitats. Workshops organised
by the Pella state hatchery, raising public awareness, aim at the same direction.
3.1. Production Trend in Pella State Hatchery
After a production decline, which was in general accordance with the economic crisis of the
previous decade, the level of productive operation of the station seems to be stabilizing in recent years
(Figure 1). The largest production proportion of rainbow trout fry are supplied exclusively to
organizations and associations whose main goal is the restocking of artificial reservoirs scoping in
busting recreational fishing activities (Figure 2). Interestingly after the period of 2018-2019 and until
2022, during the COVID pandemic period, there is no supply of juveniles towards private fish farmers.
Figure 1: Rainbow annual production in Pella state hatchery
Figure 2: Supplying direction of produced juveniles. With the term individuals, the private companies
are concerned, whereas the term clubs include Public Bodies, Management Bodies and Fisheries
Cooperatives
Both production and supplying direction trends (Figures 1 and 2) indicate an on-going decreasing
interest in rainbow trout production sector by all stakeholders’ categories. More specifically, older
producers retire from the production process, and are usually neither replaced by youngers new ones
nor by their children who generally prefer to move in large cities [7]. Also, the younger ones consider
498
the financial risk of such an investment to be excessive, despite the ambitious help and support offered
by the competent state bodies, including the fish breeding stations.
It should be noted however that the production capacity of the above-mentioned station seems to be
up to four times of the current. This productive potential requires an increase in both financial and
human resources. The level of employees’ expertise in the state hatcheries can be characterised at a
satisfactory level, who, thanks to their own efforts, maintained the facilities despite the problems during
the ten – year economic crisis. The reductions in employees as well as in resources related to economic
situation are considered among the main problems causing this situation.
Notably, the today need for financial support of the specific state infrastructures is obvious since the
motivation of the business activity in the aquaculture seems to be gaining interest in a regional
development point of view, with the fish breeding stations exhibiting an important perspective role to
enact.
3.2. Research Activity – Ecological Role
In addition to the production of juveniles for aquaculture support purposes, brood production is
also performed for stocking purposes in freshwater ecosystems. However, these introductions,
especially in the past, have not always led to the desired results. Genetic and population studies have
revealed introgression and antagonism with local populations, occasionally leading to negative impacts
even local extinctions of the brown trout Salmo trutta [8]. Hybridization due to imports of other trout
species has also been reported, while conspecific juveniles have also been imported between different
regions [9], whereas the contribution to fisheries was eventually not significant [10]. An important
factor worsening the above situation has been performed by a bunch of informal enrichment actions
carried out by local services and non-professional fishermen, which are not officially recorded [11].
Keeping these incidences in mind, during the last two decades juveniles of rainbow trout produced by
the Pella state hatchery are provided for stocking activities limited only in artificial freshwater
ecosystems.
Regarding the research activities, it has to do mainly with the means provided by the state. In
the last twelve years, the effort has focused mainly on maintaining functionality and no resources have
been spent towards this direction, although there is a corresponding interest from the scientific staff.
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, the role of Greek public hatcheries in supporting freshwater fish farming, in
particular rainbow trout, has been of great importance during the last four decades. Production trends
have been greatly influenced by the economic crisis, employees, and resources reductions with a
potential harmful effect on rainbow trout aquaculture. On the other hand, new roles of state hatcheries
as monitoring of fish populations contribute to riverine habitat research, management and protection.
Genetic improvement and evaluation of climate change effects on the production and stress of reared
fish could also be a potential field of research for state hatcheries.
5. References
[1] J.P. Blancheton, Development in recirculation systems for Mediterranean fish species.
Aquaculture Engineering 22 (2000) 17-31
[2] FAO 2022. Global Aquaculture Production. Fisheries and Aquaculture Division [online]. Rome.
[Cited Wednesday, May 18th, 2022].
[3] V., Makri, K., Feidantsis, D., Papadopoulos, A., Lattos, I., Georgoulis, B., Michaelidis, I.A.,
Giantsis, Natural‐like pigmentation in cultured fish stocks, not only a matter of nutrition. A review
of Salmonidae and Sparidae families, with a particular focus on the red porgy Pagrus pagrus.
Aquaculture Research 52 (2021) 2942-2953.
[4] K., Gkanias, Production systems and trends in the Eyropean and world aquaculture [Chapter]. In
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Triantafyllidis, 2015. AQUACULTURE [Undergraduate textbook]. Kallipos, Open Academic
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[5] P., Martsikalis, G.A., Gkafas, A.P., Apostolidis, A., Exadactylos, Genetic structure profile of
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Aquatic Sciences 14 (2014) 749-757.
[6] D.E., Evangelidis. (1999). Aquaculture and fisheries potential in Pella: Current situation and future
perspectives. 1st Conference for Regional Development in Pella Regional Unit, 2011, plenary talk,
in Greek
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Entrepreneurial Success: Evidence from the Greek Reality. Agriculture 11 (2021) 1192.
[8] I.A, Giantsis, A., Sapounidis, E., Koutrakis, A.P., Apostolidis, Assessment of Stocking Activities
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Freshwater Biology 53 (2008) 1555–1566. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2427.2008.01988.x
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