Snakehead Catches World Figures - Summary of the FAO Fishery Statistics

This text summarizes numbers of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) yearbooks Fishery Statistics - Catches and landings¹ runs numbers about catches of several snakehead species. This is done to give an overview over the economic importance of snakeheads as food fish mainly in Asia. This puts Channa in a somehow different light which is confusing to Aquarists who would never think of their tank inhabitants to be a world number one proteine resource.

General introduction to numbers and FAO classification and Fishery Numbers

The numbers of the Fishery Statisics are mainly based on data drawn from commercial, industrial, and subsistence resources, excluding recreational purposes like game fishing. The species classification is after the FAO International Standard Statistical Classification of Aquatic Animals and Plants (ISSCAAP) which comprises 995 species. Those 995 species are arranged in fity-one groups which are themselves constituted of nine divisions. The divsion in respect to snakeheads is number 1 freshwater fishes, and the group them has the code 3 Miscellaneous freshwater fishes. The FAO statistics yearbook Part B takes this two-digit code for further detailing catching numbers, which in consequence means, that in B-13, snakehead catches are listed by countries.

Furthermore, each species item is identified by means of the FAO Aquatic Sciences and Fiesheries Information Service which consists of a FAO English name, FAO French name, FAO Spanish name, the scientific name, an taxonomic code, and finally an inter-agency 3-alpha identifier. The taxonomic code consists of digits which reflects following:

Main Grouping

Order of sub-order

Family

Genus

Species

In respect to snakeheads the numbers are as follows:

	Main Grouping	Order of sub-order	Family	Genus	Species
	Pisces	Ophiocephaliformes	Channidae	Channa
Channa spp.	1	67	01	001	xx
Channa striatus	1	67	01	001	07
Channa micropeltes	1	67	01	001	09

The 3-digit alpha code for snakeheads are as follows:

Channa spp.	FSN
Channa micropeltes	FIS
Channa striatus	FSS

Channa striatus 1,67(01)001,07 FSS

The amounts of Channa striata catches during the listed years 1981 and 1993 generally show a decreasing tendency (especially on the Phillipines). A reason was not to find in the yearbooks for this behaviour. The author is astonished about the number of countries. He expects other countries to be fishing this species because it is the most widespread one and a highly esteemed food fish as for example Willey already in 1907 about Sri Lanka states. A possible reason for this might be the instable or non-existing reporting resources.

	Philippines	Thailand	Total amount in metric tonnes
1981	8040	37724	43764
1982	7814	25795	33609
1983	25976	21211	47187
1984	11646	20394	32040
1985	12262	21842	34104
1986	10699	23542	34241
1987	7654	19561	27215
1988	7067	15800	22867
1989	7331	20000	27331
1990	7676	16801	24477
1991	7331	20000	27331
1992	7219	18700	25919
1993	9025	19300	28325

Channa micropeltes 1,67(01)001,09 FIS

The yearbooks do only list one country for Channa micropeltes: Indonesia. The FAO English name for it is Indonesian Snakehead. The author is wondering himself about the name since it is generally called Giant Snakehead which again is a highly esteemed food fish and very common in Thailand and Malaysia.

	Total amount in metric tonnes
1981	8482
1982	7619
1983	8866
1984	9599
1985	10103
1986	9024
1987	10071
1988	10424
1989	9554
1990	8523
1991	10128
1992	7910
1993	8300

Channa spp. 1,67(01)001,xx FSN

In respect to the FAO Channa spp. term, it comprises the african Channidae Parachanna. A further identification of the species grouped below Channa spp. can only be given for Turkmenistan. Ichthyological literature in respect to the former U.S.S.S.R. shows that Channa argus warpachowsky has been introduced to those Central Asian states as food fish. It seems to be a very adaptable species. This literature will get published here too (hopefully) soon. A further remark concerning the catches in India must be done here. There is industrial food fish breeding literature available since the 1950s showing the early interest of breeding Channa as food fish there (this will appear here too). There must have been a lack of reporting data in the FAO. Only with this in mind, one will understand the gigantic numbers.

	India	Turkmenistan	Nigeria	Hong Kong	Indonesia	Total amount in metric tonnes
1981					35385	35385
1982					32216	32216
1983					35321	35321
1984				65	36281	36346
1985				200	35986	36186
1986				128	33879	34007
1987			2096	200	31999	34295
1988			2096	300	32163	34559
1989			2230	270	27923	30423
1990			288	310	30155	30465
1991		7	825	300	27907	29039
1992	65273	7	2035	300	27052	92625
1993	69309	6	1873	800	27020	97129

Snakeheads.org has obtained permission to use these figures by the FAO.

References

¹ Until now, the following yearbooks are consulted: FAO Fisheries Series No. 38, 43, 44 (Rome 1992, 1994, 1995). Back