NG Highlands

Tilapia and Trout for NG Highlands

From Our Own Correspondent

FISH ponds are being constructed

at Goroka, NG Eastern High lands, to receive a consignment of Tilapia. PIM readers have heard of these fish, from Fiji and elsewhere.

Their first claim to fame is that they multiply faster than any calculating machine and like to live in compara

tively small ponds.

This Highlands area has also got trout. On September 22, Goroka Farmers’ and Settlers’ Association with the assistance of Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd., took delivery of 4,000 Rainbow Trout fingerlings. The fish were brought to Goroka by Mr. P.

Edmonds, who has been responsible for their development at Bulolo.

BGD General Manager Lars Berg strand, has earned the gratitude of the Farmers’ and Settlers’ for his assistance.

The young fish were distributed in two streams at high altitude, in water temperatures of less than 55 degrees.

District Services and Agricultural Officer Jim Sharpe co-operated with the Association to provide quick transport and protection. No fish were lost before they entered the water.

In four months’ time the result of this trial will be known. Larger quantities can then be obtained in the egg stage and hatched in the Highlands.

Meanwhile, the first of three one acre Tilapia fish ponds has been completed at Goroka by the District Commissioner. The Department of Agriculture has promised to stock the pool. Pools are also to be con structed at Nondugl and Minj.

The introduction of pond fisheries, if successful, will provide the nucleus of a new source of protein for local natives.

It should later be possible to re distribute the fish to other pools which settlers and natives will both be prepared to make if the Goroka venture pays off. (Ed. Note: Trout fingerlings were released at Nondugl several years ago. We have never heard what happened to them.) II M. Michel Coppenrath, son of a very well known and old-established family in Tahiti, was ordained a Catholic priest in Poitiers Cathedral, France, recently. His parents were present at the ordination. Another son, Hubert, is also studying for the priesthood.