Thirty million eggs for breeding young muksun will be harvested at the Soba fish hatchery
The Soba Fish Hatchery expects to harvest at least 30 mn eggs of muksun fish by the end of 2022, which is almost twice as much as last year, when 16 million eggs were produced.
2 December 2022The young whitefish, raised from the eggs the company stocks, will replenish the fish stocks of the Ob-Irtysh basin. Alexander Stotsky, General Director of the Project Office for Arctic Development, talks about this.
The muksun, a valuable fish of the salmon family, was on the verge of extinction in the YNAA by the early 2010s, forcing authorities to ban fishing for the species in the waters of Yamal, the Tomsk Region and Ugra. The Soba plant, located in the YNAA, is the only aquaculture enterprise in the Polar region engaged in the reproduction of this species. The muksun population is being restored through the efforts of fish farmers.
The Soba Fish Hatchery produced its first test fish stock back in 2016, and since 2017, the company has been operating in normal mode. In December 2020, the region produced about 2.5 mn pieces of muksun eggs from the factory stock for the first time.
A number of fish species living in Arctic basins have significant nutritional value, while also providing a source of vital vitamins and minerals. It's not just about muksun—the Putorana char, which population was found in Lake Sobachiy in the Taimyr Nature Reserve, holds the record for polyunsaturated fatty acid content. The Project Office for Arctic Development is implementing a project aimed at introducing the Putorana char into aquaculture and making it a commercially available species for the people of the region and the whole country.