Video credit: Herman Hennig (Argentine)
Source: www.fishconsult.org
This video was filmed in a raceway trout farm located in Mendoza province.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, several species of salmon including several trout species were introduced with the objective of stocking the Patagonian lakes for sport fishing and then after in aquaculture. Of all introduced species, the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), along with the brown trout, were the ones that adapted with most ease.
At first, its culture was carried out in land-based concrete raceways, with high water exchange rates. After the 1990s, most aquaculture operations are carried out in suspended cages, while the raceways are still in use especially by small producers whose production is no more than 30 tons/year.
The development of aquaculture in Argentine relied significantly on rainbow trout which represented the whole production in 1990 (300 tons). Aquaculture production and so trout production continued to increase over years reaching the highest trout aquaculture in 2010 (1651 tons) representing about 62% of total aquaculture production in that year. According to FAO statistics, the development of aquaculture during 2011, 2012 and 2013 increases at higher rate than that for trout which amounted 1365, 1260, and 1255 tons in 2011, 2012, and 2013 representing 43, 42.8 and 32.9% of total aquaculture production respectively.
While most trout producers obtain trout fingerlings from local hatcheries, a small percentage of eyed-eggs are still imported from the USA.
