Thiruvananthapuram: Fishes like tilapia and catfish, which in India are called invasive aliens, are success stories of commercial aquaculture in Thailand. In fact, the Thai seafood industry is greatly dependent on such exotic species according to Krishna R. Salin from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
He was delivering the keynote address at the international conference on ‘Aquatic Exotics: Trends, Challenges and Policies’ at Senate Chamber on Monday.
The Thailand story offered insights on how to effectively make use of Invasive Alien Species (IAS). They use special farming systems to breed some of the highly carnivorous species, he says.
Moreover, the Thai department of fisheries has farms to grow indigenous species which might be wiped out by the invasive aliens, he said. They restock the rivers with native species thus grown.
The three-day conference was inaugurated by National Biodiversity Authority chair B. Meenakumari. In India, she said, there was no inventory listing how many species are useful or harmful.
“There are highly propagative species which are useful. The white shrimp Litopenaeus Vannamei forms 75 percent of our fish exports,” she said.
However, invasive aliens cause as much as 20 percent crop losses in India, according to Kerala State Biodiversity Board chair Oommen V. Oommen.
He shared examples from around the world, of the threat such species pose to native species, especially the already endangered ones. Brown tree snake, accidentally introduced by the US military to the island of Guam, affected the population of native bird species, he said.
In Kerala, indigenous species are being replaced by invasive aliens in reservoirs and these are even found in high range areas, according to A. Biju Kumar, head of the department of aquatic biology and fisheries, which organised the conference.
The inaugural function was presided over by N. Veeramanikandan, pro-vice-chancellor, University of Kerala. He said many a time ornamental species become invasive species.
