{"id":221224,"date":"2026-07-24T14:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/221224\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:41:11","slug":"african-catfish-threatens-iraqs-native-fish-shafaq-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/221224\/","title":{"rendered":"African catfish threatens Iraq&#8217;s native fish &#8211; Shafaq News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                            2026-07-24T14:20:27+00:00<\/p>\n<p>                                    font<\/p>\n<p>                                            Enable Reading Mode<\/p>\n<p>\n                                        A-<br \/>\n                                        A<br \/>\n                                        A+\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>Shafaq News- Baghdad<\/p>\n<p>The African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) has become firmly<br \/>\nestablished in Iraq&#8217;s rivers and water bodies, making its eradication<br \/>\nimpossible, the head of the Iraqi Fish Producers Association told Shafaq News<br \/>\non Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Iyad Al-Talibi said the predatory species feeds on native<br \/>\nfish, including binni, gattan, shabout, and carp. He noted that the fish<br \/>\nentered Iraq before 2023 and is now found in the Third River, Dalmaj Marsh,<br \/>\nShatt Al-Hilla, the Euphrates River, and other parts of the country.<\/p>\n<p>The species is consumed in some areas, particularly western<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/shafaq.com\/en\/society\/First-ever-sighting-of-African-Catfish-in-Iraq-s-marshes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">marshlands<\/a>, Salah Al-Din, and Nineveh, Al-Talibi said. He added that it also<br \/>\noffers potential benefits, including helping remove certain organic pollutants<br \/>\nand serving as a protein source for poultry and aquaculture feed production.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq&#8217;s Environment Ministry has begun mapping the African<br \/>\ncatfish&#8217;s distribution in coordination with the Agriculture Ministry,<br \/>\nuniversities, and local authorities as part of preparations for a national<br \/>\nprogram to manage invasive species. The plan includes environmental monitoring,<br \/>\nfield surveys, a national database, targeted fishing in heavily affected areas,<br \/>\nand public awareness campaigns to prevent the species from spreading to new<br \/>\nwater bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-07-24T14:20:27+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Baghdad The African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) has become&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[63593,63592,152,28821,94,63594],"class_list":["post-221224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-african-catfish","tag-african-catfish-threatens-iraqs-native-fish","tag-breaking","tag-fish","tag-iraq","tag-predatory-species"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116975480535715763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}