Lake Ohrid will be restocked this year with 1.6 million Ohrid trout. The number is large, and the species behind it is endemic - it lives only in Lake Ohrid, its tributaries and the Black Drim, nowhere else on earth.

Environment and Spatial Planning Minister Muamet Hoxha, together with representatives of the State Agricultural Inspectorate, Mirko Ukoski and Arbnor Arifi, was briefed on the artificial breeding process for Ohrid trout and on the preparations for restocking the lake.

„The Ohrid trout is one of the greatest treasures of our lake and protecting it is our shared responsibility,” Hoxha said.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy said it would continue its activities and institutional support for protecting, breeding and preserving the Ohrid trout as a native species.

The number is good, but it is not the answer

One million six hundred thousand fish a year is a serious investment operation and deserves to be mentioned. But restocking is by definition a reaction, not a solution - it is done because the population does not sustain itself.

And if a species has to be topped up from outside for decades, something in the lake is consuming it faster than it regenerates. Restocking keeps the number up; it does not remove the cause of the number falling.

The questions that stay outside the press release

Protecting an endemic species takes more than the fish released - it also takes the part nobody photographs: how many fishermen operate without a licence, how many restaurants serve the species during the closed season, how many inspections were carried out this year and with what result.

The presence of two representatives of the State Agricultural Inspectorate during the visit signals that enforcement is part of the picture. The question is whether it is part of everyday practice.

Protecting the Ohrid trout is one of the rare subjects that divides nobody in this country - everyone agrees it is worth it. Which is exactly why it is reasonable to expect that, alongside the number of fish released, someone will publish the number of fines issued.