Pikeperch Sander lucioperca production in the south part of the Caspian Sea: technical notes

Abstract

Pikeperch Sander lucioperca is an endemic species present in many rivers and lakes of Eurasian regions and also distributed in the Caspian Sea basin. This species was caught by commercial fishermen in the south part of the Caspian Sea, with the highest annual record of 4167 tons in 1931, but due to over-fishing and destruction of natural spawning areas, wild populations have completely collapsed. In order to cope with this marked decline of pikeperch stocks, the Iranian Fisheries Organization developed the artificial propagation and rearing activities for stock rehabilitation. Currently, breeders are caught from natural environments for artificial propagation with or without hormonal induction in order to produce annually millions of fingerlings for releasing into the rivers of the Caspian Sea. Although aquaculture of pikeperch is still in the phase of research and development, some carp farmers are now interested to use it for biological control of undesirable species in earthen ponds. In recent years, total annual fish landings of pikeperch in the southern part of the Caspian Sea increased to 100–300 tons, because of Iranian restocking program. However, more studies are still necessary to successfully achieve pikeperch domestication and to produce a specific formulated feed for this species, with the ultimate goal that pikeperch be adopted by Iranian commercial fish farmers.