Pond fishery is a specific and very distinctive form of agriculture. The full-scale rise of this branch of agriculture dates back to the 16th century, when it was first developed in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. Gradually, the experience of these countries was adopted by Lithuanian landlords. Pond fishery were mainly developed in the Vilnius region and Žemaitija. In Žemaitija, fish farming was mostly developed in the manors of Kurtuvėnai and Šilo Pavėžupis. Historical records show that four large and several smaller ponds were built in Kurtuvėnai in 1592. By 1936, there were already 50 ponds in Kurtuvėnai, covering an area of about 200 ha. It turns out that the owner of Kurtuvėnai Manor, S. Pliateris learned the fishery from the famous fisher of the time, Mykolas Girdvainis, and was his student. M. Girdvainis himself ran the family pond farm on his wife’s land at the Išlynai manor near Stulgiai, not far from Kelmė. The closest neighbour of S. Pliateris, with whom he cooperated and consulted on fishery issues, was Stasys Putvinskis, the owner of Šilo Pavėžupis Manor. S. Putvinskis was a great enthusiast and promoter of carp farming in ponds, describing the achievements of carp farming on his own farm, improving the technology of carp farming and preparing to publish a textbook on carp farming.

At the Šilo Pavėžupis Manor, carp farming was the most profitable activity – more profitable than cereals or milk.

In the period before and between the First World War and the interwar period, pond fishery were significantly expanded. However, it was largely abandoned during the war and immediate after the Second World War.

In the Soviet era, the beginning of the substantial development of pond fishery should be considered to be 1958, when the Inland Waters Exploitation Board under the People’s Economic Council was established.

Initially, renovation of existing ponds started. Since 1962, new ponds have been designed and built. By 1990, around 12,000 hectares of ponds had been created. Around 9,000 hectares of ponds are currently used for fish farming.
The rest of the ponds are not used for various reasons. In 2015, 4,157 tonnes of fish from ponds were sold.

Aquaculture businesses, with all their infrastructure, were set up for the sole purpose of economic gain. In this way, intensive farming has been promoted in every possible way to increase the profitability of enterprises. However, man-made shallow-water systems have since been shown to be just as attractive to many birds. However, these habitats only exist as long as the ponds are in operation, so any change in activity, not to mention a complete termination of activity due to the bankruptcy of the company, also triggers significant habitat changes, which result in significant ornithological changes. Our company is a successful business and is open to all nature and bird lovers. We are happy to welcome researchers, students, schoolchildren, tourists and ornithologists. Photographers are frequent visitors to our ponds. Many beautiful photos taken in our ponds adorn photo albums. And the most famous photo, “Silent screaming” by Marius Čepulis, was nominated for the 2013 Photo of the Year.