Tilapia is fat and thick, tender and less thorny, and has a sweet taste, which is popular with foodies around the world, taking the United States as an example, the United States is the Global American Fisheries Association (NFI) data shows that in 2015, the per capita tilapia consumption in the United States was 1.381 pounds (1.25 pounds), and the consumption of tilapia ranked fourth in aquatic products, second only to shrimp, salmon and tuna.
And tilapia is even more stimulated after encountering the profound Chinese cuisine, braised tilapia, steamed tilapia, boiled tilapia... Without it can not do, in the past two years, it can be said to have become the favorite of many Chinese foodies.
China has also become the world's largest tilapia farmer and processing exporter, with production reaching 1.78 million tons in 2015 and frozen tilapia exporting 390,000 tons. Logically, tilapia should not survive childhood in China, but many people may not know that tilapia is an invasive species that has been flooded in the wild.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > how tilapia invaded our country</h1>
"Tilapia" originally referred to the Mozambican mouth-hatched non-crucian (Oreochromis mossambicus), a species of fish in the genus Cichlididae in the suborder Lycaenidae. Mozambique's mouth-hatching non-crucian carp is home in the lower reaches of the Zambezi River in Africa, usually living in warm freshwater waters with muddy bottoms, but also in brackish waters at the mouth of rivers and even onshore coasts.
Now the term "tilapia" has become a generic term for a variety of fish and their hybrid offspring of the Tilapia and oreochromis species of the cichlid family, with more than 100 species (including subspecies and hybrids), and currently the main species cultured are Nile tilapia, Orea tilapia, Mozambique tilapia and their hybrid offspring of various combinations: Fushou (Nile tilapia and Mozambique tilapia hybrid), Oni tilapia (a hybrid of Orea tilapia and Nile tilapia), Geefu tilapia (descendants of the parent species of Nile tilapia from eight origins who have been bred by family lineage), Red Tilapia (a variant of the cross between Nile tilapia and Mozambique tilapia).
As early as 1956, China began to introduce tilapia, because it looks like crucian carp we are familiar with, so when it was introduced to China, it got a nickname for African crucian carp.
However, in the process of breeding, a small number of fish species from the fish pond began to mix into the rivers and lakes, tilapia eat miscellaneous, various plants and algae in the water eat Ma Ma Fragrant, grow rapidly, 6 months to reach sexual maturity.
And they are very adaptable to the environment, when the water temperature becomes cold, they will dive into the deep water to hide, the water temperature warms up and then quickly return to shallow water to feed, even in the water with less dissolved oxygen also has a strong adaptability. They have a short spawning cycle, laying more than 1,000 eggs. In addition, the female will put the fertilized eggs in her mouth to complete the incubation process, effectively avoiding the risk of the eggs being eaten by natural enemies and encountering environmental disasters. High spawning capacity and high survival rate give tilapia super fertility and survival rate. Tilapia can breed several generations a year, which also allows them to flood in the wild.
With its strong vitality, tilapia spread throughout the major waters of South China, rewild into a common species, becoming one of the main invasive fish in South China, Tan Xichang of the Pearl River Institute of Water Resources Conservation Science, etc. through the study of the distribution and early development of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in the Pearl River Basin, confirmed the rapid expansion of Nile tilapia population, has posed a serious threat to indigenous fish species, that tilapia has become a high-risk invasive species in the Pearl River system.
Mozambican tilapia is listed in the IUCN Commission on Species Survival (IUCN) in the World's Top 100 Invasive Alien Species, and in August 2014, The Nile Tilapia was included in the List of Invasive Alien Species in China (Third Batch).
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why not catch wild tilapia</h1>
The tilapia sold and exported in the Chinese market is artificially farmed, and many people think that the wild one will definitely be better than the artificial farm, but in fact, many vegetables, fruits, poultry and fish, in order to obtain higher economic returns and improve the quality of meat, will be artificially cultivated. Thus increasing its market value.
Taking bananas as an example, wild bananas are covered with small holes, their seeds are large, and the flesh is particularly hard, not suitable for consumption, after countless generations of domestication and improvement by humans, there are now bananas.
The same is true of tilapia, wild tilapia has a poorer taste, contains a fishy taste, and fewer people like it. What's more, wild tilapia vary greatly in size, resulting in varying quality wild tilapia and therefore low prices, so even fishermen are reluctant to catch wild tilapia.
The Eastern Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute uses Nile tilapia and Oriya tilapia for hybridization to produce more than 90% of all male tilapia. All male tilapia has the advantages of fast growth, large grow-out specifications, strong disease resistance and easy feeding. The captive tilapia is large, has a full back muscle, good meat and tender taste, and is free of parasites on the surface.
In addition, because of the strong environmental adaptability of wild tilapia, many people think that wild tilapia breeds in areas such as stinky gutters, septic tanks, sewers, etc., which is very dirty, so they refuse to eat, which further restricts the market for wild tilapia.
Even if the wild tilapia market is vast, it is impossible to solve the problem of their flooding by eating, and no invasive alien species can be solved by eating, because the speed of human eating is far less than the speed of their reproduction, and unlike native species, invasive alien species have neither natural enemies, reproductive ability, environmental adaptability and strong ability, far from relying on the chopsticks of foodies to solve.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary</h1>
On Earth, there have never been any invasive species that have been solved by eating, including the bullfrog or tilapia, which are very popular in China, and most of the ingredients we usually eat have entered the market through artificial cultivation.
Compared with the convenience and economy of artificial breeding, most fishermen will not spend energy to catch tilapia in the wild, coupled with the strong vitality, fertility and unrefined living habits of tilapia, so that he occupies an advantage in China's ecological environment and breeds in large quantities.
As an alien species, tilapia has also caused serious damage to the entire ecology, and the living space of many native freshwater fish has been further compressed. How to protect the diversity of fish resources in China's major water systems and prevent and control the ecological invasion of tilapia has also become a problem for China.