TEHRAN — Iran’s Department of Environment (DOE) has banned tilapia breeding in the country as it poses a significant threat to native fish species, an expert with aquatic animals division of the DOE has said.

The only body in charge of granting a license for tilapia breeding is the DOE which is strongly disagree with breeding the fish, Mehr news agency quoted Omid Seddiqi as saying.

The law clearly mandates that breeding any kind of aquatic animals must be approved by the DOE, Seddiqi stated.

Some justify tilapia breeding as a means of creating more job opportunities and making profit but the species are pretty harmful and detrimental to the environment and native species and will also lead to some negative and serious social and economic consequences, he warned.

“Breeding aquatic animals which are native to Iran are pretty much profitable but unfortunately the farmers overlooked such great treasures,” he regretted.

It is believed that breeding tilapia in Iran is a big threat to other aquatic animals as tilapia is pretty invasive to the ecosystem and their introduction causes or is likely to cause harm to the ecosystem.

MQ/MG