Repeuplement et soutien aux ressources halieutiques - Etat des connaissances et recommandations

The repopulating of aquatic environments has long been based on the idea that in order to increase halieutic resources, one just had to artificially increase the number of fish in their early stages in marine or fresh water environments. Therefore, as the knowledge on the reproduction of some species and the mastery of their artificial reproduction was growing, the capacity to produce large amounts of eggs or fries from different fish or mollusc species became a reality. Controlled reproduction and the availability of large quantities of fertilized eggs, and then of larvae showing, in captivity, a greater survival capacity than naturally reproduced ones, lead to an increase of repopulating attempts through the release of fries or young fishes raised in captivity. First carried out in fresh water environments, then in marine environments from the end of the XIXth century onwards and the first breakthroughs in the artificial reproduction of some marine fishes, billions of fish eggs and larvae have been released in the ocean for more than 50 years by about thirty countries (including Norway and the USA) without any effect being demonstrated [...].