Farming of the anadromous shad, Tenualosa ilisha:Signs of taking off in India

Clupeids are important food fi shes in high demand and hence are heavily exploited across the World. Most tropical clupeids are un-domesticated and caught from the wild. The species, Tenualosa ilisha, belonging to the family Clupeidae, is an economically important food fi sh in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Arabian countries, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam, and Sri Lanka. Locally called hilsa, the species forms a rich fi shery worth over US$ 2.0 billion in the northern Bay of Bengal and associated rivers in India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar1. By nature, the species is anadromous; spawns in freshwater stretches of rivers and the juveniles migrate to saline off shore waters for growth and maturation and again migrate back to freshwater stretches of rivers for spawning. The populations of the species are declining globally2, largely due to overexploitation and habitat modifi cations. Its fi shery has drastically declined in the Bay of Bengal bordering India3. Considering the excessive demand and very high market price of the fi sh and to ease fi shing pressure on its wild stocks, there have been eff orts for domestication and farming of the species in India, besides legislated natural stock management eff orts. The early eff orts on breeding, larval rearing and grow out in captivity of the species were not measurably successful4. However, the momentum on developing captive breeding and farming technologies for the species have been re-invigorated with research funding from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, through a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional project, ‘Stock characterization, captive breeding, seed production and culture of hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha)’ since 2012.