With the warming weather, fishermen in the districts of Orhangazi and İznik have started to cast their nets into Lake İznik for bleak fishing, a practice that has been going on for 25 years.
Bleak fishing, which is allowed throughout the year but officially starts with the onset of warm weather, is carried out by fishermen affiliated with the Orhangazi, Narlıca, Göllüce, İznik, and Çakırca Fisheries Cooperatives.
Zelkif Bektaş, the President of the Orhangazi Fisheries Cooperative, told reporters that they have started the bleak fishing season, which is lucrative due to foreign currency earnings.
Bektaş stated that the members of the five cooperatives operating around the lake catch a total of 1000 tons of bleak annually, noting that the cooperatives in İznik have higher capacities compared to those in Orhangazi.
“Primarily exported to Greece” Hoping for a season with plentiful catches, Bektaş said, “Bleak fish are packaged in Turkey and primarily exported to Greece. There are companies that send them to Ukraine and even America. We learned that the packaged chips are sold there for $4.”
Bektaş mentioned that bleak fish could also be processed and packaged in Turkey. He explained that if a cold storage facility with a capacity of 600-700 tons is built around Lake İznik, they could take on the packaging process.
Bektaş added that with the establishment of a packaging facility, through the Orhangazi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the District Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, they would have the opportunity to export the product abroad with added value.
source: aa.com.tr/ prepared by Melisa Beğiç