California, for
example, has restrictions on where tilapia may be cultured in the state, and most tilapia culture
is restricted to southern California in counties located south of the Tehachapi mountain range
that separates southern California from the Great Central Valley. The State's resource agency
originally stocked tilapia in southern California as they once believed that the fish could not
reproduce, or even survive the cool winter
temperatures. Tilapia not only survived, but
successfully reproduced, even in the high salinity inland Salton Sea. The restrictions are in
place now to prevent tilapia from being introduced in the watersheds north of the Tehachapi mountain range.