What Is Killing the St. Peter’s Fish in Israel’s Lake Kinneret?
Image by haaretz
A new study by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority is debunking a long-held theory by fishermen and Agriculture Ministry fishery experts that a bird known as the great cormorant is responsible for the worrisome disappearance of fish in Lake Kinneret.
According to reports by fishermen, the quantity of fish in the lake has declined from more than 2,000 tons a year two decades ago to a few hundred tons in recent years. Experts ascribed the decline largely to eating habits of the great cormorant, an avian winter guest in this country with a voracious appetite for the bounty of the lake.
Counts made by the Parks Authority show that between 13,000 and 23,000 cormorants land here every year (last winter’s count was 14,000 ), with a few thousand settling down in the Kinneret area. Their favorite meal is St. Peter’s fish (tilapia ), which also happens to be one of the most economically valuable species to the fishermen.
Authority scientist Yifat Artzi’s calculations show that, at most, the birds are responsible for eating only some 38 tons of St. Peter’s fish – not enough to explain the decline.
For more, go to Haaretz
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
