Scénario et commentaires du film : « Étude et culture du tilapia : histoire d'une domestication »

Belgian researchers have been concerned with the main steps of the domestication of the Tilapia : hydrobiology in natural habitats and collecting of specimen for identification and systematics in the thirties; collecting of a founder stock from the Luapula-Moëro for experimental rearing in ponds in the Katanga (Shaba) province of the late Belgian Congo (Zaïre) as early as the fourties; eco-ethology and extensive traditional fishing at lake Lufira in the late fifties; comparative and developmental ethology in aquaria in the sixties and finally, intensive rearing in cages flooded and tanks filled with warm water from industrial wastes at the Tihange power station in the seventies. The film recapitulates all these steps with movy-pictures taken by actors and direct witnesses of these pioneer-works. It shows the techniques and the development of Tilapia culture in ponds in the Katanga, the traditional fishing at Lake Lufira, the breeding behaviour of substratum spawners and maternal brooders species in the field and in aquaria; it explains in details the improvement of the techniques used for mass production at the experimental station at Tihange. It illustrates the improvement of productivity, considering successively the outcome of traditional fishing ( 100 kg/Ha/year), the results of intensive Tilapia culture in ponds (5 T/Ha/year) and the mass production in cages and tanks (equivalent to 300 T/Ha/month). This domestication story gives evidence for the complementarity between field exploration, fundamental and applied research, between pursuing pure knowledge as well as engaging in practical actions with economical developments in view.