Details of artificial reproduction of Atlantic salmon (Semga) at the Umba fish hatchery

¹ Murmansk Branch of the FSFI «Glavrybvod», 7, Comintern Str., Murmansk, 183038, Russian Federation
² Murmansk State Technical University, 13, Sportivnaya Str., Murmansk, 183010, Russian Federation

^* Corresponding author: minchenok.elena@yandex.ru

Abstract

The world's demand for fish products for food and industrial purposes has already significantly exceeded the reproduction capacity of wild fish. Further increasing exploitation of natural fish populations leads to a sharp reduction in their numbers and degradation of population biodiversity. The only way to solve the problem is to develop artificial reproduction of fish. This applies primarily to salmon, which are the most valuable and popular types of fish. In the Murmansk region, there are three fish hatcheries that carry out artificial reproduction of Atlantic salmon. Factory reproduction at the Umba Fish Hatchery (URZ) is currently an important and necessary process, since the plant is the only fish hatchery for reproductive purposes in the Tersk district. The article reveals the peculiarities of reproduction of Atlantic salmon (salmon) in the URZ. A brief description of the Umba River is given. The main fish-breeding activities are covered: catching and keeping of producers, collection of sexual products and fertilization, incubation of eggs, keeping of larvae and their transfer to external nutrition, factory tagging of juveniles, release of juveniles in the Umba River and its tributaries. The peculiarity of the Umba plant in contrast to the other two fish hatcheries of the Kola Peninsula is shown. The question of the necessity of the existence of the Umba fish hatchery and the prospects for its development is highlighted. The reasons for the decline in the number of salmon in Umba are listed. Recommendations for restoring the abundance and preserving the intraspecific biodiversity of the Umba River salmon are provided.