Scaling upScaling up

Sea of Galilee gets 600,000 fresh fish

Tilapia and silver carp expected to increase lake’s biodiversity and clear its waters of toxins

By ToI Staff 12 September 2013, 11:52 pm Edit

Shuli Chen of the National Water Authority stands in the Sea of Galilee to take a measurement of the water level, March 2007. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90/File)

Six hundred thousand tilapia fish are finding a new home in the Sea of Galilee this week as the Agriculture Ministry attempts to boost the lake’s dwindling fish population.

The fish aren’t only expected to increase the lake’s biodiversity, but also to clear its waters of toxins originating in seaweed – the tilapias’ food source – and act as biofilters to balance out the lake’s ecosystem.

Tilapia are introduced en masse into the Sea of Galilee by the Agriculture Ministry each year.

This year, the fish were raised in pools located in Kibbutz Ginosar for four months.

They were being transferred from the pools to the Sea of Galilee this week.