PAPUA NEW GUINEA

A report prepared for the Sepik River Fish Stock
Enhancement Project, PNG/85/001

by

Anders Faaborg Povlsen

(Associate Professional Officer)

This report was prepared during the course of the project identified on the title page. The conclusions and recommendations given in the report are those considered appropriate at the time of its preparation. They may be modified in the light of further knowledge gained at subsequent stages of the project.

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations or the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Henry Gumanz who assisted me in the field work. I would also like to thank fisheries officers from the highlands provinces (especially: Karl Gendua, Kine Mufuape, Joe Siwi and Vincent Sonk) for their assistance during the field work.

For bibliographic purposes this report should be referred to as:

Povlsen, A.F. (1993). Observations on the biology and ecology of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, and its implications for fisheries in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. A report prepared for the Sepik River Fish stock Enhancement Project. FI:PNG/85/001. Field Doc. 21. FAO, Rome. 26p.

Keywords:

Papua New Guinea, Fisheries Production, River Fisheries, Fish Ecology, Fish Stocking, Fish Introductions, Salmonids.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 1993

Hyperlinks to non-FAO Internet sites do not imply any official endorsement of or responsibility for the opinions, ideas, data or products presented at these locations, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. The sole purpose of links to non-FAO sites is to indicate further information available on related topics.

This electronic document has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software. FAO declines all responsibility for any discrepancies that may exist between the present document and its original printed version.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. OBJECTIVES

1.2. THE SAMPLING AREA

2. THE HISTORY OF TROUT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

2.1. TROUT STOCKING

2.2. TROUT FARMING

2.3. EXISTING REPORTS ON RAINBOW TROUT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

3. METHODS AND RESULTS.

3.1. METHODS

3.2. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TROUT STREAMS

3.3. CONDITION FACTOR

3.4. STOMACH CONTENTS

3.5. BREEDING HABITS

3.6. PRODUCTION OF RAINBOW TROUT IN HIGHLAND STREAMS

3.6.1. Salmonid production and Production/Biomass (P/B) ratios.

3.6.2. Trout production in streams in Papua New Guinea.

4. GENERAL DISCUSSION

4.1. EFFECT OF TROUT ON OTHER FISH SPECIES

4.2. OVERFISHING

4.3. FUTURE STOCKING OF RAINBOW TROUT ?

4.4. FURTHER RESEARCH

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

TABLES.

Table 1. Standard length (SL), Total Weight (TW) and Condition Factor (CF) of rainbow trouts from 3 sampling station in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Table 2. Stomach content of rainbow trout from 3 sampling stations in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Table 3. Gonadal stage of rainbow trout from three sampling stations in the highlands of Papua New Guinea