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AROUND THE WORLD 3: Gender Switched Fish Soon to be consumed in Palestine

Researchers in Israel, the West Bank, and Germany, are currently conducting a project to transform female freshwater fish into males, in hopes to increase fish population and allow citizens to consume more fish. Researchers are hoping that there will be more male fish because they are known to be bigger, grow faster, and weigh about a third more than female fish.

The research is being conducted by scientists at Hebrew University and Germany's University of Hohenheim. The researchers plan on injecting foods, usually fed to newborn Nile tilapia fish, mixed with various other plant compounds. They suspect that this mixture will have an affect on the metabolic system of the fish and switch them from being female to male.

The research is expected to solve the fish breeding problem and promote fish consumption in Palestine. The consumption of fish has fallen over the past years due to increase in sale price of fish imported from Israel. The increase of cost is due to tighter Israel travel restrictions on Palestinians.

The Israeli and Palestine researchers usually conduct the research separately and discuss results over the phone or online. Researchers are forced to do their work separately due to Israel’s travel restriction that bans Israelis from entering Palestinian controlled areas.

--Written by Tahira Lindsay

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