Colombia: Fisheries and Fisheries Management
Colombia has over 1,500 species of freshwater fish (BC has around seventy). Colombia’s fisheries harvest 24,854 tons of freshwater fish (2000) (62,464 tons for Canada); 104,790 tons of marine fish (922,611 tons for Canada); and 61,786 tons for total aquaculture production (79,200 tons in BC alone). Colombia consumes most of its fish, and exports the remainder. The country has over 600 fish farms. These farms, unlike BC’s, are typically small family-run businesses in freshwater rivers, consisting of five to ten ponds raising red and white tilapia (Oreochromis spp.), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and “cachamas” (Piaractus brachypomus and Colossoma macropomum). Many tropical aquarium fish are exported from the country. Marine fish harvested (shallow-water and deep-water shrimp, tuna, snapper and other whitefish, Pacific anchovy, Atlantic thread herring, crayfish and conch) are mostly exported.
Freshwater stocks, especially in the Magdalena Basin, have been reduced because of over harvesting, pollution and siltation.
Colombia’s coast has over 3,682 km2 of mangrove forests — fragile but extremely productive ecosystems supporting aquatic life, amphibians and reptiles, birds, and people.
Colombia hosts the greatest protected marine area in the Eastern Tropical Pacific: Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, 506 km off the coast. It is considered one of the top dive sites in the world with healthy populations of hammerhead, silky, short-nosed ragged-toothed sharks. It also has several endemic species: two reptiles, one crab, two starfish and several coral reef fish.
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