STORAGE
Colombia is a rich country in water supplies; its land is watered by a lot of rivers, streams, springs, wetlands, lagoons, lakes, grass lands, (That go flooded all year round) and out of these, dams done to acquire energy. This water richness, diversity of weathers and waters and the Colombian geography make good the study of Ichthyology in Colombia, researchers have based their studies in the geographical division of the territory. Some studies are based according to the hydrographic basin and this is what I will be based on in this page.
According to the Instituto Geográfico Agustin Codazzi, Colombia has 5 different hydrographic basins:
Pacific
Basin.
Formed
among other basins; Basin of Baudó River, San Juan,
Patía, Y Mira. Rivers on this are
short due to their closeness to the sea but with a high volume of water.
Caribbean Basin.
Formed
by the basins of, the Magdalena River, Cauca,
Atrato, San Jorge, Sinú and Ranchería.
Catatumbo Basin.
Formed by the Catatumbo River.
Amazon Basin. Formed
by the Guainia River,
Amazonas, Putumayo,
Caquetá and Vaupés.
Orinoco Basin.
Formed
by Orinoco river, Guaviare, Meta, Inírida, Tomo,
Vichada, Bita. This is considered the one of more ichthyologic richness.
Most
of the capture of fish is
done by the inhabitants of the different
regions
that depend economically from this activity; natives, colons and
families of
the regions, do it especially around small rivers or streams. The
product of
this capture can go straight to a center of grouping them or they are
collected
by an intermediary, that brig it to its place of origin. This
accumulation
center, send the captured fish to big store in Bogotá and
Villavicencio.
Some of the most important storing centers in Colombia are: Puerto
Carreño (
Departments of Vichada), Puerto Inirida (Departments of
Guainia ), Leticia (departments of Amazonas),
La Pedrera (departments of Amazonas), Villavicencio (Departments of
Meta), Puerto
Gaitán (
Departments of Meta), Arauca (Departments of Arauca),
Buenaventura (Departments of Valle del Cauca),
Puerto Leguizamo (Departments of Putumayo), Cúcuta
(Departments of Norte de
Santander), Barranquilla
(Departments of Atlántico), Cumaribo (Departments of
Vichada), Guamo (Departments of
Tolima).
See Map
there are also the ones farming ornamental fish specializing basically
in
exotic fish, and in a minimum percentage of native fish as escalar or
savage disco.
Likewise that farming’ discos genetically intervened brought
from abroad.
Big stores of exporting commercialize, mostly, native fish that are
more liked send
abroad. Some stores sell more native fish. Export farmed fish too. They
can be
from own farms or bough to another farms. Same way some farms export
directly
the fish they raise and go straight to the market of Center America or
Venezuela, the
rest is distributed in the Colombian market. National demand prefers
exotic
fish such as Ballerinas and Bettas, over the native ones as Cardinals,
scalars
etc. It happens due to the fact that fish from abroad can live on cold
temperatures and is more resistant.
Aquarium stores get their fish on farm directly or through
intermediaries. Stores
destine almost all their stored fish to be sold abroad; just a minimum
part
covers the national demand. And easily are sold to storeowners this way
is easy
for the last ones because some wares specialize in some kind of fish or
just
sell big quantities.
Rosa Elena Ajiaco et al.
in "La Pesca en la Baja
Orinoquia" say
(4) , " 76 % of exported fish comes from la Orinoquia, 21.6 % comes
from
the Amazonas basin and the other 2 % of the Pacific region, Magdalena
basin and
the Atlantic region. [...] Of the exported fish 58 %
goes to
USA, the
most important buyer; 23 % send to Europe, 13
% to Japan and
the rest goes to Asia, America and Africa."
