Fish of Israel

Fish of Israel in numbers (and stamps)


 

Fish, and not only stuffed fish, occupies a significant place in Jewish life, as an attribute of the practice of Judaism and as one of the symbols of Jewish philosophy. In the TANAKH, Talmud, Kabbalah, fish is considered in various aspects, which are mainly beyond the scope of our discussion.

In this section, we will look at fish from a purely pragmatic standpoint and will operate with only numbers:

The sources of information used in this section are dry and specific:

  • 586 fish species found in the waters of Israel
  • 27 grams of fish eaten daily by the average Israeli
  • 1503 professional fishermen
  • 55 fish farm





The latest (published in 2007) report of the Department of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture reflects 2005. In that year, 26,556 tons of fish were caught and raised in Israeli waters. As can be seen from the table, 84% of fish were given to the country by fish farmers, and fishermen - only 16%. Despite all the problems with fresh water in the country, only 22.4% of all fish caught comes from seawater.




Caught in seas (tons)
Grown in the seas (t)
Caught in freshwater (t)
Grown in freshwater (t)
2756
3196
1396
19208


    Of the 9.7 kg of fish that the average Israeli ate in 2005, 900 g were saltwater fish, 3 kg were freshwater fish, and 5.8 kg were imported. That is, 40% of the need for fish is covered by Israel itself.



Read the details below:



Ichthyofauna of Israel on the world map







  Ichthyologists have counted about 30 thousand species of living fish on the globe (according to the FishBase website at the beginning of 2007). Of these, 586 species have been found in Israel (2% of the world's ichthyofauna). Of the 1,151 species found in the Red Sea, 315 are found off our coast.

In the Mediterranean Sea, 593 species of fish are known, of which ours - 291. Small Israeli freshwater bodies are inhabited by 57 species. 18 of these 57 species have been introduced (introduced) by humans. The Kinneret is not found anywhere in the world. Let meticulous readers not be confused by the fact that the sum of the species inhabiting both our seas and freshwater bodies exceeds the total number of species of Israeli fish - there are fish that are found in both sea and freshwater, and 83 species live in both Red and in the Mediterranean Seas (some of them are widespread species, others independently expanded their range using the Suez Canal, and some were deliberately resettled by humans).

The table compiled according to the FishBase website as of April 2007 shows how our fish fauna looks against the background of fish from some other countries.

Country
Sea fish
Freshwater
Total
Belarus
0
39
39
Moldova
0
59
59
Kazakhstan
7
94
103
Georgia
24
76
125
Ukraine
46
116
224
Jordan
207
30
235
Lebanon
307
24
321
Great Britain
366
98
444
Israel
537
59
586
Canada
652
211
816
Egypt
742
108
830
Russia
573
389
887
USA (excluding Alaska and islands)
2137
946
3002
Australia
4051
338
4320

Israel is between the UK and Canada, it's not so bad!

Sea fishing

 

 

 

 

 

    In 2005, fishermen in Israel caught 2,756 tons of sea fish. Of these, the Red Sea produced only 75.2 tons. The top ten catches among Mediterranean kosher fish look like this.

Fishes
Catch (tons)
Bream
383.3
Seriols
276.1
Red mullet
257.0
Sardines
168.3
Barracuda
161.8
Groupers
161.4
Horse mackerel
124.9
Lizardhead
119.0
Tuna
88.8
Mullet
75.0

The sea fishing fleet of our country in 2005 grew and consisted of 591 vessels.
The fishing fleet of Israel
Ship size
number
Mediterranean Sea
Red sea
up to 7 м
423
10
7 - 11 м
123
2
more than 11 м
33
0


The main fishermen bases in the Mediterranean are Akko (87 vessels), Kishon (102) and Jaffa (105), and our entire Red Sea fleet is based in Eilat.

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Freshwater fishing

 






    






     





     

 

All industrial freshwater fishing in Israel is concentrated on the lake. Kinneret (where amateur fishermen find freshwater fish - see here) Lake Kinneret (Galilee, Genesaret or Tiberias) is located in a deep depression in the eastern part of the Lower Galilee, 200 km from Jerusalem. In Hebrew, it is called the sea - Yam Kinneret. The water level is unstable, normally it fluctuates between 209-213 m below sea level. The other parameters of this geographic object change accordingly. The indicators below refer to a water level of minus 209 m. (This is considered the upper permissible limit for filling the lake. If the winter is rainy and the lake is completely filled with water, then the sluices are opened and excess water is drained into the Dead Sea.)

Area, sq. Km
170
Volume, cubic km
4
Maximum depth, m
43
Average depth, m
25.6
Coastline length, km
53
Drainage area, sq. Km
2730

Previously, the water level minus 212 m was considered the “red line” - the minimum mark at which the water quality remained stable. But in the mid-1980s, the red line was lowered by 1 m, and in September 2001 - to 215.5 m, although this caused objections from some experts. In November 2001, the actual water level dropped to a minimum level of minus 215 m.

Statistics of industrial catchers in the lake. Kinneret
Year
Caught (tons)
1992
2217
1993
1813
1994
1478
1995
1214
1996
1845
1997
1475
1998
2163
1999
2144
2000
1851
2001
1851
2002
1569
2003
1064
2004
1137
2005
1396

Species composition of the catch of Kineret fish in 2005
Fishes
Caught (tons)
Percentage of freshwater fish caught
Sardinia
557.7
39.9
Mullet
250.9
18.0
Tilapia
343.7
24.6
Carp
88.0
6.3
Barbs
41.9
3.0
Silver carp
113.8
8.2

To maintain fish stocks, fry of commercial fish are regularly released in the Kinneret.

Release of fry in the lake. Kinneret (thousand units)
Year
Tilapia
Mullet
Silver carp
1993
3000
700
200
1994
2800
849
200
1995
3500
1006
200
1996
3500
735
200
1997
4000
929
200
1998
4000
1015
200
1999
6000
698
200
2000
6024
1030
200
2001
6024
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