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Aphanius saourensis: Only Critically Endangered freshwater fish species of North Africa likely extinct in the wild

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SAVING FRESHWATER FISHES AND HABITATS
Issue 4 • March 2014
IN THIS ISSUE:
• FFSG welcomes new Global Chair
• NEW Global Freshwater Fish BioBlitz
• Introducing FFSG South America region
• In search of the Mangarahara cichlid
• Killishes on the edge
• And more.......
CONTENTS
FFSG UPDATE
3 Message from the FFSG Global Chair
4 Welcome to the new Global Chair, Dr Richard Sneider
by Katalin Csatádi
5 Changes to the FFSG Secretariat
6Professor Gordon McGregor Reid awarded the IUCN SSC Chair’s Citaon of Excellence
by Suzanne Turnock
7New Global Freshwater Fish BioBlitz to Monitor Fish Species with Help of ‘Cizen Sciensts’
by Suzanne Turnock
9 Introducing FFSG Regions: South America
by Roberto E. Reis
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
14 IUCN Red List assessments of freshwater shes of the Tropical Andes
by Marcelo Tognelli and Neil Cox
15 Brazilian Acon Plans for freshwater shes
by Carla Polaz
16 U.K.’s rarest freshwater sh ‘reappears’
by Ian J. Wineld and Andrew R.D. Gowans
17 In search of the Mangarahara cichlid
by Brian Zimmerman
23 A community-led sh sanctuary iniave on Hainan Island, China
by Bosco P.L. Chan
26 Killishes on the edge
by Jörg Freyhof
26 What to do if there is no more water? Conservaon of Aphanius sirhani, the Azraq Killish
by Nashat Hamidan
28 Tilng at windmills: Conservaon of Valencia hispanica
by Ma Ford
29 A Crically Endangered freshwater sh species of North Africa likely to be exnct in the wild
by Mahmoud Bacha, Chabane Benamirouche and Jörg Freyhof
30 Aphanius farsicus might be exnct in the wild
by Hamid Reza Esmaeili and Jörg Freyhof
30 Conservaon acon for the Aci Göl toothcarp, Aphanius transgrediens
by Baran Yoğurtçoğlu and Güler Ekmekci
32 Southern African gersh populaon learns to acvely predate on swallows on the wing
by Gordon O’Brien,, Francois Jacobs, Steven Evans and Nico Smit
OPINION
34 Tackling giants: geng the most out of working groups for freshwater sh conservaon
by Harmony Patricio and Steph Januchowski-Hartley
NOTICEBOARD
36 Upcoming events and conferences
Editor-in-chief
Ian Harrison
Editor
Katalin Csatádi and
Suzanne Turnock
Design
Katalin Csatádi and
Suzanne Turnock
Front cover image:
Roberto Reis (FFSG
Regional Chair for South
America) castneng in
Purus River, Peru
Photo: James Albert
2 CONTENTS FFSG UPDATE 3
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of IUCN’s Red List
of Threatened Species. IUCN is like the UN and many other
major internaonal organisaons that aempt to address global
issues across cultures, regional interests and history, specic
environmental and polical circumstances, religions, views on
the meaning of life, and so forth, faces the daunng tasks of
building a dialogue in the Tower of Babel. Precisely because the
overall vision of these organisaons is so daunng, we invariably
nd that we are unable to fulll all the required tasks, and so
the organisaons oen fall short of expectaons and we nd
ourselves disappointed. However, even under these shadows,
the accomplishments that do get done are of such universal
consequence that we ought to recognize that these outweigh
the despair of what hasn’t been accomplished, and is yet to be
accomplished.
In a conversaon with the lm director Werner Herzog, I asked
him what he deemed some of his most signicant contribuons
at large to be. One would have expected of him to talk about
his widely known and acclaimed lms Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre,
Nosferatu, and so forth, but no, he spoke about a documentary
he just made about texng and driving. In it, Werner interviewed
and portrayed a story of a young couple who were having fun
texng while driving across the middle USA, in what seemed
empty roads; in a moment of distracon the young man got into
an accident, which killed many members of a family. Needless to
say, the horror of the story destroyed not only those killed, but
the young couple’s lives as well. Herzog, aer a quiet moment
during the dialogue, told me that if his piece could prevent even
one of these accidents from happening, that!, in itself, made all
his work meaningful!
Herzog’s story made me realize even more so, that contextual,
small prevenon of destrucon and pain, at mes even single
instances, can be transcendental. At a luncheon with Crisana
Figueres she expressed to me that her greatest frustraon in
running the climate change iniave of the UN was the seemingly
fule aempt to make a signicant impact of such global/universal
proporons, and that oen, in face of such fulity, people
abandon all hope and thus do nothing! Well, IUCN indeed faces
the fulity of saving all species and their environments, but must
celebrate the accomplishments it has made and connues to make,
everyday, in saving so many species, and their environments, and
thus, life in its many manifestaons. It is a privilege to be part of
this organizaon and group of people, and an honor to chair the
FFSG. Let us celebrate the great accomplishment made by IUCN,
the IUCN Red List, and connue supporng and enjoying all, its
daunng task, and its small, and large scale victories as well!
Richard Sneider
FFSG Global Chair
2 CONTENTS FFSG UPDATE 3
Message from the FFSG
Global Chair
Dr Richard Sneider
FFSG UPDATE
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is celebrang
50 years of guiding conservaon acon. Learn more
Welcome to the new Global Chair, Dr Richard Sneider
Katalin Csatádi
FFSG Programme Ocer
We always knew that the day would come when Gordon really
resigns (he had been threatening us for quite a while), but no one
really knew what would happen once he stepped down. And then
in the beginning of last year, when he turned 65 he did mean it,
so we took a deep breath and plunged ourselves into the process
of the impossible..… nding Gordon’s successor.
A commiee, chaired by South Africa’s Professor Paul Skelton was
put in place and the call went out for nominaons. FFSG members
responded well to the announcement and sent us the names
of various, excellent ichthyologists, conservaonists and other
professionals. They were asked to declare whether they accepted
the nominaon and if so, then to prepare a wrien statement of
why they would like to chair the FFSG and to describe their idea
of the group’s future.
Amongst the nominaons was a person who was new to many
of us in the Group. But when his piece on his views of the FFSG’s
future arrived, we knew that Dr Richard Sneider could capably ll
Gordon’s large shoes. Richard explained how he intended to lead
the FFSG to thrive in the years to come. He explained how he’d
look at how to connue the ongoing programmes and start new
ones. His discussion was full of knowledge, interest and passion.
Richard has decades of leadership experience behind him as
CEO of One World Apparel LLC and Unger Fabrik LLC. He is
mulcultural, being born in Mexico, living in the USA, travelling
around the world. He serves on the board of Conservaon
Internaonal and Los Angeles Zoo; he regularly parcipates in
freshwater sh eld surveys; he designs, builds, and maintains
several diverse freshwater ecosystems in his impressive home
aquariums and terrariums. I’m sure that everyone will agree that
the FFSG has found the leader it needs, and that it is facing great
years ahead.
Welcome to the FFSG, Richard!
Richard in his home aquarium
4 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 5
Dr Ian Harrison has joined the FFSG Secretariat to assist the new Global Chair,
Richard Sneider, in the role of Technical Ocer. Ian has already been a very
important member of FFSG; he has acted as a Steering Commiee member and as
Special Advisor for Fundraising.
Ian obtained his Ph.D. in systemac ichthyology at the University of Bristol (UK) has
conducted postdoctoral research on marine and freshwater shes in universies
and museums in France, Italy, Belgium and the USA. He has conducted eldwork
in Europe, Central and South America, West and Western Central Africa, the
Philippines and the Central Pacic.
He has assisted IUCN’s Global Species Programme, coordinang acvies for
the Global Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment, a joint programme run by IUCN,
Conservaon Internaonal (CI) and NatureServe. He is currently working for CI’s
Center for Environment and Peace on their freshwater programmes, and works
with the University of Minnesota on an internaonal collaborave project, funded
by the Belmont Forum.
Changes to the FFSG Secretariat
Dr Fareed Krupp has resigned from his posion as Chair of
the FFSG Southwest Asia region due to his very large work
commitments in the region and, especially, organizing the next
Session of the World Heritage Commiee in Doha, Qatar.
We thank Fareed for his important contribuons to the FFSG
and welcome his contribuon as an ordinary member (without
the extra commitments of a Regional Chair) for the near future.
Dr Katalin Csatádi is leaving the FFSG aer serving as
Programme Ocer since early 2012, with a hiatus in
2013 when she was on maternity leave. Ka returned to
the Group at the end of 2013, but will be leaving us so
she can really give her full me to her baby daughter, Ella.
All of us in the FFSG are extremely grateful to the
friendship and support that Ka gave us in the last two
years, especially through the busy me of the IUCN SSC
Chairs’ Meeng of 2012. We wish her and her family the
very best for the future.
4 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 5
Professor Gordon McGregor Reid awarded the IUCN
SSC Chairs Citaon of Excellence
Suzanne Turnock
FFSG Programme Ocer
In February 2014, Gordon McGregor Reid received the SSC Chair’s
Citaon of Excellence in recognion for his exemplary, visionary
and charismac leadership of the Freshwater Fish Specialist
Group, between 2004 and 2013. The Citaon of Excellence,
created in 2004, is awarded in recognion of outstanding
contribuons to the SSC. The award was presented to Gordon,
by Simon Stuart (SSC Chair), at the North of England Zoological
Society (Chester Zoo). Gordon thought he was invited to the zoo
for a farewell lunch - it was a complete surprise and he had no
idea he was going to be honoured. In response to receiving this
disnguished award, Gordon has shared the following words:
“In gaining the IUCN SSC Chairs Citaon of Excellence, I hugely
appreciate the immense compliment paid to me personally and
also to the North of England Zoological Society (Chester Zoo), its
Trustees and sta. No one achieves such presgious awards on
their own. The Zoo has been working in close partnership with
the IUCN (formerly the World Conservaon Union, of which we
are a member) for more than 30 years now. We see the IUCN
Species Survival Commission as a leading body and ‘guiding light’
for global species conservaon. We have, over the years, worked
with many SSC Specialist Groups, notably: the Conservaon
Breeding SG, Reintroducon SG, Asian Elephant SG, Amphibian
Ark (IUCN CBSG in partnership with WAZA) and, of course, the
Freshwater Fish SG.
I have been very involved with all of these foregoing groups; but
most closely with the FFSG, where I recently stepped down as
Global Chair aer nearly a decade of voluntary service. In about
2001, I was approached by Dr Will Darwall, Head of the IUCN
Freshwater Biodiversity Unit about bringing the (then defunct)
FFSG under my chairmanship. They wanted me to develop it as a
partnership between the IUCN SSC and Wetlands Internaonal. I
was pleased to take on this large task because my early training
was in sh, sheries and freshwater biology at the University of
Glasgow, at the Brish Museum of Natural History; and in the
wild in Africa and elsewhere overseas.
By 2004, the FFSG moved from being an informal collecve
of conservaon enthusiasts to a fully reconstuted body, ocially
recognized and co-governed by the SSC and Wetlands Internaonal.
FFSG sh conservaon conferences for ‘sh heads’ have been
organized on a biennial basis, to date; as well as IUCN Red List
training workshops at home and abroad to accurately determine
the threat status of thousands of sh species. To assist in the large
and growing task of the day-to-day management of the FFSG, the
Trustees of the Zoo kindly agreed to me appoinng a part-me
Programme Ocer: rst Claudine Gibson; later Katalin Csatádi;
and, most recently, Suzanne Turnock who is sll in this role. I
could not have done without this truly excellent and dedicated
support, and that of many other Zoo sta and FFSG members,
including Rachel Roberts of IUCN SSC headquarters.
As can be seen from checking out the FFSG website, we have
grown to a substanal organizaon with a global remit in the
conservaon of freshwater sh and their habitats. We now have
over 150 Members and 18 Regional Chairs around the world.
There are many acve and diverse FFSG programmes, projects
and partnerships in support of conservaon o-site and in the
wild. Some examples of high prole acvies in conjuncon with
Chester Zoo are, e.g. Mexican Fish Ark, Global Freshwater Fish
Bioblitz, World Fish Migraon Day …. I have now handed over to
the new FFSG Chair, Dr Richard Sneider, and his Technical Ocer,
Dr Ian Harrison. I am very happy to see that the organizaon is
in safe hands. I wish all my friends and colleagues in the FFSG
all good fortune in connuing to conserve shes and habitats;
and I intend to remain acve myself, but in a far more modest
capacity!”.
6 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 7
Gordon receiving the
award from Simon Stuart,
Chair of the IUCN Species
Survival Commission
The ‘Global Freshwater Fish BioBlitz’ kicked o on World Wetlands
Day 2014 (2nd February) to engage nature lovers in freshwater sh
conservaon. The FFSG has joined forces with other internaonal
groups, namely World Wildlife Fund, Conservaon Internaonal,
IUCN, Wetlands Internaonal, FishBase, the Fisheries Society of
the Brish Isles and the Group on Earth Observaons Biodiversity
Observaon Network, to introduce this new global iniave. The
BioBlitz project, designed by iNaturalist.org, will be hosted on the
FFSG website www.iucnsg.org/bioblitz.
People from around the world, whether they are anglers,
photographers, students or nature lovers, are invited to upload
photographs of freshwater shes observed in their natural
habitat, with details of where and when they saw the sh.
Volunteers with experse in sh taxonomy will serve as curators
to idenfy and verify the species to ensure the data are research-
grade. The informaon can assist sciensts to describe new
species, help assess the risk of exncon for the IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species, track the spread of invasive species, and
be exported to freely accessible online data archives, such as
Encyclopedia of Life.
The launch of the project also highlights the importance of
freshwater shes for the protecon of internaonally important
habitats. “More than three-quarters of Ramsar’s Wetlands of
Internaonal Importance, or Ramsar Sites, are enrely or partly
freshwater sites, and, of those, over 30 percent became Ramsar
Sites because of their important sh species” said Christopher
Briggs, Secretary General of the Ramsar Convenon on Wetlands.
“The more data we have on the species present in our wetlands,
the beer we can manage them. The Freshwater Fish BioBlitz
will provide a wealth of essenal informaon for managing our
wetlands and their sh species.
Projects like this are needed as Will Turner, Senior Vice President
for the Moore Center for Science and Oceans at Conservaon
Internaonal, explains “Freshwater shes may be the most
endangered group of vertebrates, with a third of all species
threatened with exncon due to overshing, polluon, habitat
loss and fragmentaon, alien invasive species and climate
change.
“The BioBlitz is our way of bringing the power of crowdsourcing
to freshwater sh conservaon,” said Michele Thieme, Senior
Freshwater Conservaon Scienst at World Wildlife Fund.
“Wildlife monitoring is vital to conservaon, since we can’t
protect species unless we know where they live and what threats
they might be facing. Engaging the public all over the world will
help us idenfy more species in more places than we possibly
could alone.
“It is a huge task – with over 15,000 freshwater sh species,
and numbers connually growing,” said Dr Richard Sneider,
Global Chair for the FFSG. “More than 300 new sh species are
described every year on average, so the more people ‘on the
ground’ carrying out observaons and recording what they have
seen, the beer.”
New Global Freshwater Fish BioBlitz to Monitor Fish
Species with Help of ‘Cizen Sciensts’
Suzanne Turnock
FFSG Programme Ocer
6 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 7
Amatola barb (Barbus amatolicus). Photo: Craig Garrow
The Global Freshwater Fish Bioblitz is inspired by another Bioblitz
for amphibians, which the Amphibian Specialist Group began
more than two years ago. “We’re hoping to mimic the success
of the Global Amphibian BioBlitz, which has been embraced by
cizen-sciensts throughout the world,” said Sneider. “In only
two years they’ve recorded more than 1,500 taxa and even
discovered a new species. I’d say that’s a prey good start.”
If this project is of interest to you, there are a number of ways you
can get involved:
Volunteer as a ‘Curator’
We are sll looking for more volunteer ‘Curators’, to idenfy and
verify species submied by members of the public. So far we have
40 expert volunteers, but are recruing more, to ensure we have
a cross secon of experse and the commitment is not too me
consuming for individuals. Volunteers need to have experse in
sh taxonomy, expert knowledge of a taxonomic group or shes
found in a parcular geographic region and be willing to commit
me to verify species idencaons. With the Global Amphibian
BioBlitz, many specialists have beneted from observaons in
their area of interest. For example, an individual could subscribe
to receive an email summary of all reports of threatened cichlids
from Bolivia. These highlights can lead to important research
collaboraons. It is also important to note that observaons can
be idened to coarser taxonomic levels, such as genus or family,
which is oen the case for observaons of crypc species or poor
quality photographs.
Publicity
We are looking for opportunies to promote this project to
members of the public and encourage them to upload their
observaons. If you can help spread the word about the Global
Freshwater Fish BioBlitz (e.g. through social media, membership
networks, websites etc), I would love to hear from you!
Upload observaons
To make this project a success and be a valuable tool for
freshwater sh conservaon, we need people to submit their
observaons! Instrucons on how to upload observaons are
available to ensure it is made easy for everyone.
If you would like to be involved in the Global Freshwater Fish
BioBlitz or for more informaon, please email info@iucnsg.org
8 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 9
Photo: Jörg Freyhof
8 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 9
South America is an island connent. It has been evolving, both
geologically and biologically, isolated from the remaining parts
of the World since the nal break up of the Gondwana in the
Cretaceous. This giant island stretches for approximately 7,500km
in its north-south axis, and more that 5,000km from east to west,
separang the South Atlanc from the South Pacic Oceans. It
has 17.84 million square kilometres and a human populaon
exceeding 387 million inhabitants.
Countries in South America are Argenna, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru,
Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. South American geology
is dominated by three main land masses that determine many
of its landscape features: the precambrian Guiana and Brazilian
Shields, and the much newer Andean Mountains the largest
mountain ridge in the World. Spread between these three
higher land masses lies a giganc, at deposional lowland,
that contains the largest rainforest of the World; the Amazon
forest. Water chemistry of South American rivers is inuenced
by these landscape features and vegetaon cover. Those rivers
draining the Andes are sediment-rich white-water rivers, like the
Amazon, Marañon, Solimões, and Madeira. Rivers that originate
in the thickly forested lowlands, like the Negro, Japurá, or Tefé,
are black-water rivers. They are tannin-rich, dark-tea-coloured
and have very low sediment loads. Finally, rivers that drain the
ancient and well-weathered crystalline rocks of the Guiana and
Brazilian Shields are clear-water rivers, with low sediment and
high transparency, like the Xingu, Tapajós, and Ventuari.
The geological complexity of South America created a wide range
of aquac habitat types, including many of the largest rivers of the
world, extensive marshes, high-altude lakes and rivers, among
other sengs. Approximately 25–28% of all free, surface fresh
water of the world is in South America. Five South American rivers
are among the ten rivers with highest water discharge – Amazon,
Orinoco, Madeira, Negro and Parana; together discharging over
390,000m3/s into the Atlanc Ocean. The Amazon River alone is
by far the largest in the world, with 219,000m3/s. Perhaps more
impressive than the Amazon discharge are its 250,000 square
kilometres of seasonally ooded lowlands, that harbour an
enormous diversity of specialized shes.
Introducing FFSG Regions: South America
Roberto E. Reis
FFSG Chair for South America
Black water tributary
to Rio Tocanns, Brazil.
Photo: Roberto Reis
10 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 11
South America also has extensive marshes and permanently
ooded wetlands, the most remarkable being the Llanos of
the Orinoco River in Venezuela, with about 300,000 square
kilometres, and the Pantanal of the Paraguay River with around
160,000 square kilometres, that stretches between Brazil,
Bolivia, and Paraguay. Other remarkable aquac habitats are
the Andean altudinal rivers and lakes, which have a sh fauna
highly specialized for life in fast-owing, well-oxygenated, cold
waters, and the endorheic river basins of the southern cone of
the connent, which harbour very poor sh fauna.
Fishes of South America
The freshwater sh fauna of South America is the most diverse
of all connents,
with the current
number of described
species surpassing
4,000, and esmates
of nal numbers
around 6,000. Besides
being megadiverse,
the Neotropical
freshwater sh fauna
is ancient and has
diverse historical
origins. The marine
ancestors of most of
the smaller groups
independently invaded
and diversied in
fresh waters of South
America during the
Palaeogene, primarily
the Oligocene and
Miocene. The main groups, such as the Cichlidae and the
Ostariophysi, however, have been isolated on the connent since
the end of the Gondwana break-up in the Cretaceous, roughly
100 million years ago.
South American shes are usually classied in three divisions
according to their origin and distribuon on the connent. The
Peripheral Division includes almost 300 species in 28 chiey
marine families, which have invaded and specialized for life in fresh
waters. These groups range from one to around 100 species, and
include freshwater sngrays, eels, sardines, anchovies, mullets,
needleshes, silversides, pipeshes, drums, gobies, aish and
puers, among others. The Secondary Division has above 600
species, and is composed of freshwater families that are closely
related to marine groups, but are enrely conned to connental
habitats, and include the cichlids, the highly threatened rivulids,
anablepids, cyprinodonds, and poeciliids. In contrast, the Primary
Division is composed of the Ostariophysii and four other small
families that originated and diversied in freshwater habitats:
the South American lungsh (Lepidosirenidae), the pirarucu,
the largest freshwater South American sh (Arapaimidae), the
two species of arowanas (Osteoglossidae) and half a dozen of
leaf-shes (Polycentridae). The Ostariophysii, with over 3,000
species in South America, comprises about 75% of all freshwater
shes worldwide. In this group are the tetras, piranhas, trahiras,
and their allies or Characiformes, the electric eels and other
knifeshes or Gymnoformes, and the caishes or Siluriformes.
Diversity of morphological adaptaons and ecological
requirements are also dramac across the South American
sh fauna. The
armoured caishes
or Loricariidae, the
largest caish family
with above 800
species, includes
remarkable examples.
Some species live in
highly oxygenated,
fast-owing mountain
streams while others
dwell in almost anoxic
lagoons in Amazonian
lowlands and use
their intesnes as an
accessory respiratory
organ. Other amazing
adaptaons can
be found among
caishes, such as the
phreac habits of
Phreatobius, a genus of a few species that live inside the soil in
river banks and are most easily captured in exisng water wells.
Possibly the strangest feeding habits among South American
shes are those of the blood-sucking, parasic candirus of the
genus Vandellia. These shes are provided with special odontodes
on their opercular area that allow them to rmly aach to the
branchial arches of larger shes to feed on their blood. These
are the feared candirus that are known to mistakenly enter the
human urethra causing painful complicaons. Also, highly feared
is the poraquê (Electrophorus) of the Gymnoformes. Most of
the species in this order are small and use their electrogenic
abilies to generate an electromagnec eld around themselves
to communicate and to perceive the neighbourhood electrically.
In contrast, the poraquê grows to almost 2 metres long and can
deliver electric shocks of up to 600 volts that are used to stun
their prey.
Hypostomus luteus from Rio Uruguay Photo: José Pezzi
10 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 11
Clockwise from top le: Former Teotonio falls in Rio Madeira, Brazil
(Photo: Roberto Reis); New criscross species of Cetopsorhamdia (Photo:
Roberto Reis); Upper Rio Ucayali, Peru (Photo: James Albert); Redbelly
piranha in Pucallpa market, Peru (Photo: Paulo Petry); Hypostomus
unicolor (Photo: Roberto Reis)
Threats
Just like in any other connent, many of these habitats are
currently threatened by extensive deforestaon, water
divergence for irrigaon, hydroelectric damming and alluvial gold
mining. Fish species are further threatened by invasive species
and overexploitaon in some areas. Deforestaon and the
consequent habitat degradaon, especially the severe siltaon
of river beds, is one of the main threats to thousands of small-
to medium-sized rivers. Deforestaon in South America involves
both legal and illegal logging, clearing for cale ranching and,
especially, for expanding the agricultural froner within the
Amazon and the Atlanc forest. Hydroelectric damming aects
sh populaons in a threefold manner. The transformaon of
a loc environment into a lake signicantly changes the local
community composion.
On a wider scale, dams regulate downstream river ow, thus
disturbing the annual cycles of feeding and reproducon,
and disrupt the migratory routes of many large shes. This is
parcularly harmful in South America because migratory species
move up rivers during the high-water season and spawn in the
owing current of the headwaters. Eggs and then larvae are
immediately carried downriver by the turbid, well-oxygenated
torrent and, under natural condions, reach oodplains in
the low poron of the river courses, where they will complete
development. When a dam with a sh passage is built between
spawning areas and the oodplains, the adults can migrate
upriver and spawn, but the eggs either sink or are rapidly eaten
by the many tetras that usually dwell in lakes, as they reach the
reservoir.
Gold mining is also an enormous environmental problem that
adversely aects aquac organisms. Rivers are heavily dredged,
in a process that usually completely destroys the river bed and
banks. In addion to degradaon of the physical habitat, the
typical use of mercury to separate the gold from the substrate,
followed by vaporizaon of the mercury to yield pure gold, causes
severe poisoning to miners and the environment.
Another important threat for South American shes is posed by
the numerous invasive species. This is less of a problem in the
Amazon, but in many river drainages of Argenna, central and
eastern Brazil, Chile and other countries, there is one to several
introduced alien sh species. Aquaculture is the main factor
in the introducon of alien species, with salmon introduced in
south and central Chile while Brazilian rivers harbour around
13 introduced species from other connents, especially lapia,
carps, trout, ictalurid caish, clariid caish and others.
Conservaon
Despite the complex array of factors threatening South American
freshwater shes, there are few ‘on-the-ground’ conservaon
iniaves on the connent. The most important have been
the sh assessments for the preparaon of IUCN Red Lists for
dierent countries or regions in South America. Probably the
most ambious of these is the current partnership between
the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and IUCN, with the aim
of assessing the conservaon status of about 10,000 Brazilian
species, including freshwater shes and other organisms.
Another important project of sh IUCN Red Lisng, includes
the lower La Plata River basin in Argenna, Paraguay and Brazil,
which uncovered three Endangered species, eight Vulnerable and
three Near Threatened among the 184 assessed species. Finally,
Peru is beginning the process of assessing the conservaon status
of their freshwater shes through a partnership between the
Peruvian Ministry of Environment and IUCN South America.
Priories for future acon include compleon of the conservaon
status assessments regionally and at a connental (global) level,
and then proceeding to the development of acon plans. Also,
instrumental for the future of sh conservaon in South America
will be increasing the Ph.D. level experse in sh taxonomy and
systemacs, especially in non-Brazilian countries, improving
museum facilies and inventory iniaves to uncover the
undescribed sh diversity, and fostering new iniaves of on-
the-ground’ freshwater conservaon.
Text in this arcle is largely based on Reis (2013). Another important
reference for South America and its shes is Albert and Reis (2011):
Albert, J.S. and Reis, R.E. (eds). 2011. Historical biogeography of
Neotropical freshwater shes. Berkeley, University of California Press.
Reis, R.E. 2013. Conserving the freshwater shes of South America.
Internaonal Zoo Yearbook, 47: 65-70.
12 FFSG UPDATE w
A chain of large dams have blocked migratory sh movements
in basins such as the Parana, aecng sh biodiversity paerns
and sheries sustainability. Photo: Claudio Baigún
12 FFSG UPDATE w
Spotlight on the Chair:
Dr Roberto E. Reis
Roberto is primarily interested in
freshwater sh biodiversity, evoluon and
conservaon. His research programme
mostly involves discovering and describing
the sh diversity of South America and
studying their phylogenec relaonships
and biogeography. He has a Ph.D. from
the University of São Paulo (1994), and
is a Professor of Biology at the Poncal
Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, and a Curator of Fishes
at the Museum of Sciences and Technology
of the same University.
Roberto has extensive eld experience
collecng and studying shes in many
places in South America, especially in
Brazil and Peru, and is currently involved
as Taxon Coordinator (freshwater shes)
of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment
iniave to assess the conservaon status
of all Brazilian vertebrates. He is a former
President of the Brazilian Society of
Ichthyology and a member of the IUCN SSC/
WI Freshwater Fish Specialist Group since
its beginnings.
Roberto castneng
in Purus River, Peru
Photo: James Albert
14 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 15
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
IUCN Red List assessments of freshwater shes of the
Tropical Andes
Marcelo Tognelli and Neil Cox
IUCN/Conservaon Internaonal Biodiversity Assessment Unit, Bey & Gordon Moore Center for
Science & Oceans, Conservaon Internaonal
Last August, the IUCN-CI Biodiversity Assessment
Unit and the Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, with a
generous grant from the MacArthur Foundaon,
started a project (‘Comprehensive assessments to
understand and migate the impacts of development
on freshwater biodiversity in the Tropical Andes’) to
assess the conservaon status of the freshwater
biodiversity of the Tropical Andes region. The
project will encompass the complete extent of the
Tropical Andes watersheds in Colombia, Ecuador,
Peru and Bolivia (please see map on right). This area
includes important watersheds, such as those of the
Magdalena in Colombia, the Marañón in Ecuador
and Peru, the Ucayali in Peru, and the Madre de Dios
in Peru and Bolivia.
The primary goal of the project is to ll the
data gaps that will allow conservaon planning
and sustainable management of freshwater
biodiversity in the Andes. To meet this challenge,
a comprehensive conservaon assessment for an
ecologically representave set of, approximately,
2,500 aquac species in the Tropical Andes region
will be performed. The target groups will be
freshwater shes, freshwater molluscs, freshwater
plants, and dragonies and damselies (odonates).
Two addional noteworthy targets will be included
in the IUCN Red List assessments: the ulizaon of
species by people (e.g. food, ornamental trade),
and species’ vulnerability to climate change. The
IUCN Red List and climate change vulnerability
assessments will also provide baseline data to
idenfy Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs; catchments
that are priories for conservaon acon) based
upon compiled biodiversity data and the review and
validaon of proposed KBAs by stakeholders.
This goal will enable proper representaon of freshwater ecosystems in
protected areas, and will promote the development of networks of protected
areas that include regions of crical biodiversity in conjuncon with regions
that supply freshwater ecosystem goods and services to dependent
communies.
14 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 15
Since its foundaon in 2007, the Chico Mendes Instute (ICMBio)
has been responsible for the Naonal Acon Plans in Brazil.
Its main mission is conserving Brazilian biodiversity, especially
inside Protected Areas. Acon Plans are public policies idenng
and guiding priority acons to combat threats that endanger
populaons of species or environments (e.g. natural caves).
The ICMBio Instrucon Act n. 25/2012 is based on strategic
planning and provides a simple, but robust method, that can be
applied in all taxonomic or geographical levels. These levels may
include a single species, or groups of species and subspecies, and
can be set at global, regional or naonal levels.
The steps of an Acon Plan, include analysing the informaon
for the idencaon of direct threats and actors and dening
objecves, goals and strategic acons to promote a change in
the risk of species exncon through parcipatory planning
workshops. Following this, ICMBio approves the publicaon of
an execuve summary and the Acon Plan’s book and connues
to oversee the implementaon of recommended acons. In
each completed year aer the rst workshop, a new monitoring
meeng takes place to establish the status of acons: concluded
(blue signal); on progress in me (green signal); ongoing with
problems (yellow signal) or delayed (red signal). An advisory
specialist group systemacally follows the implementaon
of acons unl the end of the Acon Plan ve years later. To
warrant that the Acon Plan will have greater implementaon
success, the process includes mullateral parcipaon, aiming
to establish a pact involving various segments of government,
non-governmental organizaons, conservaon experts,
representaves of local communies, the private sector and
other key stakeholders.
Chico Mendes Instute currently controls 44 Acon Plans for
fauna species with the support of the Project PROBIO II/MMA,
four of them designed for freshwater shes:
Acon Plan for the threatened species of the Paraíba do
Sul watershed, that comprises ten shes, one turtle, three
crustaceans and three molluscks (all from freshwater habitats).
Acon Plan for the threatened species of the Mogi, Pardo,
Grande and Sapucai-Mirim watersheds (Upper Paraná basin),
that comprises fourteen endangered shes.
Acon Plan for the threatened species of Rivulidae family, that
comprises more than 50 annual shes.
Acon Plan for the threatened species of the São Francisco
watershed, that comprises ve shes and four molluscs in the
Brazilian Savanah (Cerrado) (under construcon).
For more details of all Chico Mendes Instute Acon Plans,
please, visit the website: www.icmbio.gov.br/portal.
Brazilian Acon Plans for freshwater shes
Carla Polaz
Naonal Center Research for Conservaon of Freshwater Fishes, ICMBio - Instuto Chico Mendes
(Chico Mendes Instute)
Salminus brasiliensis (also known as "dourado" in Brazil) is an alien species in the Paraiba do Sul River basin and
a huge threat to nave shes. Photo: Leonardo Milano.
The U.K.’s rarest freshwater sh, the vendace (Coregonus albula),
has made an unexpected ‘reappearance’ in Bassenthwaite Lake
in north-west England more than a decade aer its last sighng.
A sh community survey undertaken in September 2013, within
a long-term monitoring programme, recorded a single vendace.
The small size of the sh (54 mm fork length) makes it likely to be
an underyearling, which hatched during the previous spring.
Only four vendace populaons have ever been recorded in the
U.K., with records from two lochs in south-west Scotland (Castle
Loch and Mill Loch) and Bassenthwaite Lake and the nearby
Derwent Water of the English Lake District in north-west England.
The populaons in Scotland were lost many decades ago,
probably as a result of local nutrient enrichment, and vendace
were last recorded in Bassenthwaite Lake in 2001 (Wineld et al.,
2012, 2013). Unl recently it was believed that only the Derwent
Water populaon remained, along with a refuge populaon in
Loch Skene in south-west Scotland established using eggs from
Bassenthwaite Lake in the early 2000s.
There are three possible origins for the sh found this autumn.
First, it is possible that vendace have actually survived in
Bassenthwaite Lake for the last 12 years at a very low abundance
below the limit of detecon and may now be increasing in
abundance. Second, it is possible that the sh has arrived in
Bassenthwaite Lake by moving down the River Derwent from
the populaon in nearby Derwent Water. Third, it is possible that
such downstream movement happened some me ago and that
the individual is the locally-spawned ospring of such colonisers.
DNA obtained from this vendace is to be sequenced in an aempt
to shed some light on this issue.
This nding of a single vendace does not, of course, indicate that
a self-sustaining populaon is present in Bassenthwaite Lake, but
it is a very pleasant surprise and gives great encouragement to
everyone involved in the restoraon of the lake and its fantasc
wildlife. Connued monitoring of the sh community will help us
to understand what has happened and will connue to inform
appropriate local conservaon acons, with perhaps also some
lessons for wider issues of sh conservaon.
References
Wineld, I.J., Adams, C.E., Bean, C.W., Durie, N.C. Fletcher, J.M., Gowans,
A.R., Harrod, C., James, J.B., Lyle, A.A., Maitland, P.S., Thompson, C. and
Verspoor, E. 2012. Conservaon of the vendace (Coregonus albula), the
U.K.’s rarest freshwater sh. Advances in Limnology 63, 547-559.
Wineld, I.J, Adams, C.E., Bean, C.W., Durie, N.C., Fletcher, J.M., Gowans,
A.R.D., Harrod, C., James, J.B., Lyle, A.A., Maitland, P.S., Thompson, C.
and Verspoor, E. 2013. Posive steps for conservaon of the vendace
(Coregonus albula), the UK’s rarest freshwater sh. Newsleer of the
IUCN SSC/WI Freshwater Fish Specialist Group 1, 14-15.
U.K.s rarest freshwater sh ‘reappears’
Ian J. Wineld 1 and Andrew R. D. Gowans 2
1Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, UK; 2Environment Agency, Penrith, UK.
16 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 17
Bassenthwaite Lake, home once again (?) to the vendace
(Photo: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)
Single vendace recorded at Bassenthwaite Lake (Photo: Centre
for Ecology & Hydrology).
16 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 17
In search of the Mangarahara cichlid
Brian Zimmerman
Zoological Society of London, UK
In late 2012, at the Internaonal Aquarium Congress in Cape
Town, Sam Furrer of Zurich Zoo and I spoke about what zoos
and aquariums were doing with Madagascan shes. Several
instuons kept and bred a variety of species, but we didn’t know
which species or how many individuals were held in capvity. We
agreed to conduct a survey to nd out who was working with
them, and to develop an inventory as a starng point. Lile did I
know, at that me, this was the start of a mission to save a species
from exncon.
Sam sent out the survey and in a few months revealed the results.
Over 40 instuons responded to the survey, mostly in Europe,
but a few from North America too. About a dozen collecons in
Europe kept Malagasy shes and there were about 15 species in
the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) collecons. One species
stood out for me: the Mangarahara cichlid, Ptychochromis
insolitus. The survey showed that only Berlin Zoo and my
instuon, ZSL, were keeping this species. Both of ZSL’s sh were
old males that arrived from hobbyists in 2002. We originally
received about a dozen sh – all siblings – but these two males
were all that remained. I called Rainer Kaiser at Berlin Zoo and
asked him about his sh. He said he had a pair and that they
spawned regularly in the exhibit tank, but that the fry were
usually eaten by tank mates. Aer our discussion he agreed to
set up a separate tank for his pair and aempt to rear up some
youngsters. Only two weeks later I had an email from Rainer
telling me that the male had killed the female. That le only
three males known in Europe. It occurred to me that this could
be the end of the species.
I had read that the Mangarahara River was nearly dry and the
Amboabao River, its tributary, was reduced to a few pools by
1999. Most of the water had been diverted for rice farming
and a drought aecng Madagascar had made the situaon
worse. Worried that capve populaons may be the last hope
of survival for Ptychochromis insolitus, I contacted the hobbyists
who originally gave us the sh in 2002 to see if they had any
more of this species. They no longer kept sh, but referred me to
someone else. Over the next month I followed up a number of
leads that all became dead ends.
Over the following few months I made a habit of poinng out
our two males to visitors to the aquarium, saying that they
might be the last of their kind. People were horried and asked
what we were doing about it. I spoke to my press team about
launching an appeal to the public to see if anyone was keeping
the Mangarahara cichlid. Geng sh cover in the press isn’t easy
for a zoo curator when you compete with gers and gorillas and
other charismac fur-balls.
Two old male Ptychochromis insolitus at ZSL London Zoo
The now dry Mangarahara River
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 19
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 19
Surprisingly, my press team thought it was a great idea and within
a week we launched the “Fish Appeal” requesng anyone with
informaon about this species to get in touch. The mainstream
media were capvated by this story and intrigued by my
descripon of the sh as “gorgeously ugly.” Suddenly it was about
nding a mate for two old men. I was grateful that a separate
account was set up for incoming emails because the response was
overwhelming. In addion to hundreds of well-wishers and a few
sarcasc responses saying exncon was natural; let them die,
there were a few dozen solid leads to follow up on. Unfortunately,
all of these strong leads
lead back to the same
few people that kept the
species in the 1990s and
early 2000s, but no longer
had them.
Then I had an email
wrien in French from a
businessman called Guy
Tam Hyock, who owned
a number of aquaculture
sh ponds in northeast
Madagascar. He said
he knew a sherman
from the area of the
Mangarahara River that
had recently caught a
sh that he believed
may be Ptychochromis
insolitus. He said there
weren’t many and that
there was no water in the
Mangarahara River, and
the water was no longer owing in the Amboaboa River in the dry
season. He also said he could take me to the spot where the sh
was caught.
The “Fish Appeal” had also put me in touch with Alex Saunders
from Denver Zoo and Tim McCaskie from Toronto Zoo – both
of whom had travelled to this region of Madagascar previously.
Tim said he was planning a trip to Madagascar in late 2013 and
would be happy to work together trying to nd the P. insolitus.
Tim was in touch with Tsilavina Ravelomanana from the University
of Antananarivo, who was one of the biologists, Alex had worked
with before. Tsilavina agreed to come along with us and help
with the in-country logiscs. One of my aquarists, Kienan Parbles
would also join us since he had been to Madagascar before. I also
had a call from Tim Smart, the Brish Ambassador to Madagascar.
He’d heard about the Fish Appeal and wanted to know if there
was anything he could do to help. Tim suggested I apply for a
small grant from the Foreign and Commonwealth Oce to help
fund the trip. The grant was successful, and with ZSL and Toronto
Zoo funding the remaining amount, we started to plan logiscs.
We assembled our team and planned the trip for November when
the dry season would allow the best access to the region. Two
teams would head north from Tana and we would try to cover
as many of the owing tributaries of the upper Soa drainage
as possible, using local knowledge and Tsilavina’s previous
experience. We agreed to save the site, Guy had reported the
sh from, for last since it was
most remote. I was told that
we would need a month
to conduct the trip since
things in Madagascar can
take a long me. Having
not travelled to Madagascar
before I was glad for this
advice.
Aer four days of logiscal
planning in Tana, we headed
north along an increasingly
bumpy, potholed road.
Over the next few days we
searched for owing water
and found very lile. The
landscape was charred
with burnt trees, and res
were burning everywhere.
Locals burn the grass before
the rainy season to bring
fresh growth for cale. This
deforestaon and burning
pracce has very clearly destroyed most of the watersheds in
Madagascar. Rivers didn’t ow and most were just swathes of
sand with no water. It was depressing and we were losing hope of
nding any sh, let alone the one we came to track down.
Eventually, we ended up at the Maravato River, which sll
contained water. There was lile ow, but the pools were deep
and there were sll some trees along the bank. We organised
ourselves to survey this river with a variety of methods – traps,
seine nets and dip nets. The whole village of Marovato came down
to watch or join in. Chaos reigned and doing anything organised
was dicult. The locals thought we were crazy for wearing chest
waders rather than just jumping in the water. Everyone stared
at us curiously, periodically laughing hysterically at something
we did. I’ve never had to do water quality analysis in front of an
audience of 50 people before. Nevertheless we wanted to get
some good data on the habitat, should the sh be found here.
Cartoon created by ZSL aquarium volunteer David Shenton
We ploughed on with shing and sampling for several hours, but
the only sh we caught were lots of lapia and a few Sauvagella
robusta, which seemed to die as soon as you looked at them. A
few local women caught some species of Pachypanchax to show
to us and Tsilavina took a few as specimens as he hadn’t seen
them before. By the end of the day we realised that there would
be no Ptychochromis here. Even the locals didn’t recognise them
in photographs, so we realised this was a dead end.
Over the next several days we repeated similar sampling
experiences; somemes we would catch no sh, other mes
just lapia or a few gobies. Eventually we decided to head up
north along the Soa to Antsakabry to check tributaries at higher
elevaon in the hope there would be more water and fewer
lapia. Our jeeps were prey baered and the roads were
hardly what you would call ‘roads’. Finally, two weeks into the
expedion our lead jeep started to have serious problems and we
needed to rethink the plan. We were running out of me and we
wanted to be able to reach the site where P. insolitus had most
recently been seen, and sh for it thoroughly. So we turned back
and headed for Marotandrano.
As we pulled into Marotandrano a young sherman ran towards
us and proudly presented a dried Mangarahara cichlid. “Is this
what you are looking for?” he asked via a translator. “Yes,
only slightly less dead.” I asked him where he found it and he
promptly led us down a dirt track for two hours to a pool in the
non-owing Amboaboa River. He and three fellow shers jumped
into the pool and pulled out a small sh trap. They shouted:
“Joba mena!” That’s the local name of Ptychochromis insolitus
I soon learned. What does it mean? “Red girl” apparently.
The male sh have red edges to their ns when fully mature
as I knew from the sh we kept at ZSL London Zoo. Red boy
would have been more appropriate I suppose. In any case at
last we had a live Mangarahara cichlid! It was a juvenile male
about eight cenmetres long. In the next two hours before
nighall seine neng yielded an addional three shes. We
also caught Paretroplus nourissa, P. gymnopreoperculatus, and
Pachypanchax sp. Soa. We photographed and measured these
shes then released them and made plans for a full sampling
session the next day.
20 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 21
Tesng water quality with an audience in Marovato and one of the beer roads.
A dried Ptychochromis insolitus presented by a
sherman in Marotandrano
20 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 21
That night word got around that there were some out-of-towners
looking for Joba mena and I was presented with a plate of
dried specimens. I asked them not to bring me any more like
this. Instead we made a plan to sample in six locaons along
the river to see if we could determine the extent of the species’
remaining range. The team divided up, and over the next few
days, we shed and collected data. Ulmately, we found them
in three of the six sites, with the downstream sites too degraded
to support nave species and the last upstream site too deep to
sh properly. Further upstream was the Marotandrano Special
Reserve. This reserve was the only reason any water remained in
the Amboaboa. I wanted to check the river in the reserve, but we
needed to get special permission, which took a day to organise.
A day of travel by very bad road and steep hill-walking lead us
to the border of the special reserve. We weren’t allowed to sh
here, but the water was so clear that you could easily see rich
aquac life, such as amphibian larvae and aquac insects. No
sh though. We asked at the small village closest to the reserve’s
boundary and they were unfamiliar with Joba mena. They knew
of some small sh: “Zoono” a catch-all phrase for Pachypanchax
and anything else of that size. Tsilavina was hopeful they might
be Rheocles derhami as we managed to catch a single individual
downstream the day before. But further sampling didn’t nd any.
We were excited that Ptychochromis insolitus and its sympatric
species community sll existed in the wild in Madagascar, but
deeply concerned with the state of their habitat. Rice farming
and its associated water abstracon, intensive shing including
the use of poisons, deforestaon and erosion, as well as the
presence of lapia and Gambusia were big concerns and we
needed to make a decision about our next move. It is clear that
the sh were not really safe where they were and in a few more
years it is likely they will be gone from this area – and since there
are no breeding populaons in capvity, they will become exnct.
We decided to buy me for the species by catching a few
individuals and moving them to Guy’s ponds near Andapa.
This wasn’t originally part of the plan; the expedion was just
meant to see whether there were any Ptychochromis insolitus
in the wild and then form a plan. But we knew we needed to
act quickly, whilst we were sll in Madagascar, or there was
a big risk we wouldn’t have a second chance. Fortunately Tim
had brought a selecon of “breather” bags with him for moving
Bedoa and Pachypanchax if needed. We went to the market in
the village and bought a number of baskets and bags and planned
to go shing in late aernoon: to avoid the hoest part of the
day. We worked in two teams covering two areas so we had a
beer chance of catching a suitable number of sh. We decided
to collect all the sympatric species as well since their survival was
just as precarious as Ptychochromis insolitus. It seemed like half
of the village decided to join us and help with shing. We set
a target of 20 sh of each species – this was all we could carry
with the number of bags we had. By dusk we managed to catch
our target of 20 P. insolitus as well as 22 Paretroplus nourissa,
8 P. gymnopreoperculatus and 15 Pachypanchax sp. Soa. We
carried them back to the Catholic mission where we were staying
and repacked them individually for the long journey to Andapa. It
took us nearly 30 hours of connuous driving to get there, down
an impossibly bumpy road.
Brian Zimmerman with the rst live Ptychochromis insolitus
caught
A plate of dried cichlids presented to the team
Amazingly all, but one of the sh, survived the trip. Guy was
successfully breeding a number of Malagasy endemic species in
his ponds and I was impressed by the selecon of species and
well as the number of individuals he was able to breed. Our
Amboaboa sh were all placed directly into a new pond and
within a day we observed them swimming about and behaving
normally. At Christmas I had an email from Guy to say that he
spoed two pairs in the pond – one guarding eggs and the other
guarding fry. This was most welcome news, especially since one
of our two remaining males at ZSL had died on Christmas Eve.
So it seems that all is not lost for the Joba mena. There is new
hope for the species in Madagascar, even if its survival in the
Amboaboa is doubul. We will work with others to develop a
conservaon strategy for the species, following on from what the
Durrell Wildlife Conservaon Trust are doing for Oxylapia polli in
the Nosivolo River and adapng this project for the Amboaboa
where feasible. We will also invesgate whether a translocaon is
feasible – moving sh upstream to the special reserve where they
will have greater protecon. Whether or not any Ptychochromis
insolitus ever come to ZSL London Zoo is sll undecided. If a
conservaon plan can be successfully achieved in Madagascar
there will be no need to bring them to the UK. However, if our
partners in Madagascar would like our support, we will be happy
to have the species back again.
Clockwise from top le: Local shermen collecng a sh trap in the Amboaboa River; Local shermen helping to catch
Ptychochromis and Paretroplus; Releasing sh in Guy’s ponds in Andapa aer a 30 hour journey; Sorng and measuring the catch
from the Amboaboa River.
22 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 23
22 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 23
A community-led sh sanctuary iniave on Hainan
Island, China
Bosco P.L. Chan
Kadoorie Conservaon China, Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden, Hong Kong & Hainan Yinggeling
Nature Reserve, Baisha, Hainan
Hainan Island is China’s southernmost province in the South
China Sea. With roughly the same latude as Hawaii and twice
the land size (~33,000km2), it supports lush tropical forest and
a coral-fringed coastline. The tallest mountain, Mt. Wuzhishan,
exceeds 1,800m above sea level and there are 13 major rivers
with a catchment size over 500km2. The largest of them is the
Nandu River, which runs 330km from the mountainous interior
to the Gulf of Tonkin; its large size and diverse habitats supports
a rich sh fauna with over 100 species recorded thus far,
including Hainan-endemics, such as Hainania serrata, Saurogobio
immaculatus and Squalidus minor. However, growing human
populaon and infrastructure development are pung pressures
on the river ecosystem and its biota; water is being polluted,
habitat quality deteriorang, and sh populaons overshed.
Since late 2006, Kadoorie Farm & Botanical Garden (KFBG) has
been working in Yinggeling Nature Reserve, which is Hainan’s
largest protected area and covers the major tributary of the
Nandu River. Field survey, literature search and village interviews
revealed that over 50 sh species used to occur in this tributary,
called Nankai River, which has excellent water quality and
habitats. Sing deep inside the reserve, along Nankai River, is
an ethnic minority village called Daoyin. Due to its remoteness
and impoverished economy, Daoyin villagers tradionally rely
heavily on stream shes to supplement their diet. Things were
ne unl the 1980s, when “technological advancement” brought
electroshing, dynamite-shing, cheap chemicals as sh-poison,
as well as concrete to build weirs and dams; all to the detriment of
the sh fauna. Villagers reported a sharp decline in sh diversity
and abundance, with exrpaon of the more sensive species,
like Hypophthalmichthys harmandi, Spinibarbus denculatus,
Bangana discognathoides and Coreoperca whiteheadi (Chan and
Chen, 2008).
Nankai River, a tributary of Nandu
River with prisne water and lush
riparian rainforest, Hainan Island.
Photo: Bosco Chan@KFBG
24 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 25
To engage the local communies in conservaon, KFBG and
Yinggeling decided to work with Daoyin Village in protecng their
shes, as they can easily associate shes with their daily life,
which oers a good entry point to understanding the importance
of conservaon. We started by staying in the village, conducng
eld work and interview surveys on sh diversity and ulisaon,
and sharing our views on how the local communies could
sustainably harvest their sh resources for the benet of their
future generaons. Our enthusiasm in protecng their food (i.e.
the shes) got them interested, especially when we were the rst
ever group snorkeling and later on scuba diving in their river!
We soon introduced the idea of establishing a sh sanctuary in a
secon of the river, in which shing is strictly prohibited to allow
recovery of the sh populaon. We thought that a agship species
would help us spread the message and, to our expectaon, found
that their most popular game sh is the large-sized Spinibarbus
caldwelli (locally known as junyu), which is becoming rare due
to overshing. Some taxonomists considered it conspecic with
Taiwanese S. hollandi, but see Tang et al., 2005. Interesngly, the
junyu supercially bears striking resemblance and has similar
habitat requirements (swi, clear, rocky-boomed hillstreams)
to species in the genus Tor (commonly known as mahseer) highly
esteemed by mountain tribes in many Asian countries (e.g. T.
tambroides of SE Asia, T. putora of the Himalayas).
We also made it very clear that the management of a “mini”
protected-areas, such as the ones being proposed in secons
of the Nankai river, should rest with the local community, to
guarantee ownership. Before long the villagers were convinced,
and decided to set aside their best “junyu pool” as their sh
sanctuary.
Fearless Spinibarbus caldwelli came close to inspect the
author inside the Daoyin sh sanctuary, Hainan Island.
Photo: Bosco Chan@KFBG
Author and colleague conducng a sh survey in
the Daoyin sh sanctuary, Hainan Island. Photo:
Jiang Enyu@Xinhua News Agency
24 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 25
Subsequent monitoring as well as reported catches outside the
sh sanctuary conrmed the eecveness of it, with a shoaling
junyu populaon in the sh sanctuary and less eort needed to
harvest enough sh for a meal outside. Today, the lucky visitors
are treated with tens of >30cm long junyu greeng them close,
or even nipping their toes, if they are paent!
In 2012, to promote this idea to a wider community and to
further enhance the conservaon value of the sh sanctuary,
we organised a grassroots workshop about the sh sanctuary,
during which we also released some ngerlings of a locally-
exrpated species, Spinibarbus denculatus, collected from a
downstream site in middle part of the Nandu River. It was the
giant of Nankai River, being able to grow to over 20kg; but it had
been exrpated in the 1980s as the species, according to the
villagers, are parcularly suscepable to dynamite-shing! The
Daoyin villagers have fond memories of the species and indicated
they would love to have it back, so that their grandchildren can
see it swimming in their river again. The event was aended by
almost 100 people, mainly chiefs from surrounding villages and
local government ocials, and many have voted to set up their
own sh sanctuaries in their respecve villages. I can tesfy they
are serious about keeping their word, as my recent exploratory
scuba diving survey at a downstream village aracted almost
the whole village to the stream bank waing for an hour, just
to show their desire to have us helping them to establish a sh
sanctuary!
References
Chan, B.P.L. and Chen, X.L. 2008. Species diversity and distribuon of
freshwater shes at Mt. Yinggeling, Hainan Island, China. Biodiversity
Science 16(1): 44-52. (In Chinese with English abstract)
Tang, Q., Liu, H., Yang, X. and Nakajima, T. 2005. Molecular and
morphological data suggest that Spinibarbus caldwelli (Nichols)
(Teleostei: Cyprinidae) is a valid species. Ichthyological Research 52:
77-82.
Author conducng interview on changes in sh diversity and
abundance in Daoyin Village, Hainan Island. Note the t-shirt
with Spinibarbus caldwelli we distributed. Photo: Jay Wan@
KFBG
Chiefs of surrounding villages reintroducing Spinibarbus
denculatus into the Daoyin sh sanctuary, Hainan Island.
Photo: Jay Wan@KFBG
Parcipants of the grassroots sh sanctuary workshop in front of the Daoyin sh sanctuary, Hainan Island. Photo: Jiang Enyu@
Xinhua News Agency
26 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 27
Killishes on the edge
Jörg Freyhof
Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Instute for Animal Biodiversity, Germany
While killishes are most species rich in the wet tropics,
there are two species of Valencia in the European
endemic family Valenciidae and 25 species of Aphanius
(Cyprinodondae) accepted as valid in the Western
Palearcc. Several addional species exist, but as there
has been no comprehensive taxonomic review, only these
27 species had been assessed against the IUCN Red List criteria. From all the 27 Western Palearcc killishes,
18 (65%) have been assessed as threatened, 10 (43%) of them as Crically Endangered. This ranks killishes
just behind sturgeons as the most threatened group of Western Palearcc freshwater shes. The high threat
levels are due to their high vulnerability to alien species, especially Gambusia holbrooki, which is now almost
omnipresent in killish habitats and the fact, that many killishes are restricted to a few or just one spring areas,
lakes or lagoons in arid or semiarid climate regions.
Here we bring together ve case studies at dierent progress levels, from long-term conservaon experience for
Valencia hispanica and Aphanius sirhani, a new project on A. transgrediens in Turkey to the just discovered A.
saourensis and A. farsicus, which are in a need of new conservaon projects.
What to do if there is no more water? Conservaon of
Aphanius sirhani, the Azraq Killish
Nashat Hamidan
Royal Society for the Conservaon of Nature, Jordan; Centre for Conservaon Ecology and Environmental
Science, Bournemouth University, UK.
The Azraq killish, Aphanius sirhani, is endemic to the Azraq
wetland in Jordan. This wetland used to be a large oasis fed from
aquifer water. It was distributed over around 27 km2, where the
aquifer naturally provided around 25 million cubic metres of water
annually to the surface. This water was the water that exceeded
the aquifer’s capacity. Since the 1980s, water was abstracted in
huge quanes from the phreac layer to feed the demands of
Jordan’s capital Amman, and other large cies, aer which, the
water level dramacally dropped, unl the oasis completely dried
out in 1992. Part of the Oasis was restored and maintained in what
is known now as the Azraq Wetland Reserve to resemble a sample
of what the former oasis looked like. This restoraon started in
1994, where 8% of the marshes (based on their 1960s extent)
have been restored. During this restoraon, the Azraq killish was
maintained in the reserve and outside by capve breeding.
The bale against exncon started in 1998, when the Royal
Society for the Conservaon of Nature (RSCN), the organizaon
responsible for nature conservaon in Jordan, decided to
integrate the endemic killish conservaon programme into the
rehabilitaon project. Thus, the conservaon of killish started
with a baseline survey to invesgate the situaon of the killish
and, if it is not exnct, to determine what the future plan would
be.
Gambusia holbrooki
Research work carried out in corporaon with the Limnology
Department of the University of Vienna, showed the species
existed in very low numbers. A rescue mission started immediately,
and part of the wild populaon was collected for special stocking
and propagang programmes. Two years later, in 2002, the rst
trial release took place, and this was tested in 2003 when another
release was also made. Both releases were monitored in 2004,
but both showed redundant improvement in the populaon size
of the endemic killish, and the species was sll at the edge of
exncon.
A detailed understanding for the survival requirements of the
Azraq killish became a priority, and this was applied through a
detailed three year long study of the species’ life history traits.
The study obviously demonstrated the ability of the species to
adapt to the well idened harsh environmental condions:
water shortage and uctuaon, habitat loss, and the impact of
alien species, including compeon for food, nursery grounds,
and the direct predaon of adults, juveniles, and eggs.
Scienc evidence-based conservaon acons were planned,
brave but massive rehabilitaon eorts took place, and were
guided by the 1960s aerial photos and maps that showed the
water regime at that me. The remaining wild killish were
removed and secured in a semi-natural pond, and then most of
the wetland habitats were dried in preparaon for restoraon.
The water system was redirected to follow the old pathways aer
they had been cleaned; water depth was designed to be mosaic;
shorelines were created; and a new large water pond was created
explicitly for the killish and no other species.
Aer this work was nished, water was pumped again into the
new habitat, and 1,250 killish were introduced on 28th February
2006. Six months later, a monitoring survey of the killish took
place, and for the rst me in a long me it was possible to obtain
a full net of the endemic Azraq killish. Also, for the rst me, the
size of the populaon exceeded those of alien sh populaons.
The killish populaon connues to increase, and it is now the
only sh species in the newly established pond. Moreover, it co-
exists with the introduced cichlids in the old modied ponds, but
in large numbers, and since 2006 it is the most abundant species.
Despite this success, the species remains fully conservaon
dependent, as water must be pumped into the wetland. Also,
despite the fact that the killish coexists with the alien cichlid
species, the laer have been a problem; it has not been possible
to fully eradicate them, so they sll need to be connuously
controlled since they are present in all, but one, secured large pond
in the reserve. The overall success of the programme is integrated
into school curricula. Also, several awareness programmes were
running in parallel to the eld work. Specimens of living Aphanius
sirhani were also secured outside Jordan in the Breeding Centre
of Endangered Arabian Wildlife in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
This success would not have happened without the great eort
and help of many people and organisaons: rst The Royal
Society for the Conservaon of Nature, in parcular Azraq
Wetland Reserve team; also the Limnology Department from the
University of Vienna, and especially Mr. Anton Weissenbacher,
Horst Zornig. Chester Zoo, through the coordinaon of Professor
Gordon McGregor Reid, kindly provided funds both for the
project and the detailed survey. Fareed Krupp, Chris Goldspink,
and Zuhair Amr provided technical contribuons. This project
also received several funds from dierent donors, including the
Ford Conservaon and Environmental Award, The Netherlands
Embassy in Amman, Jafar Aquacs, and a Ramsar Convenon
small grant. The project heroes are not forgoen, they are Mr.
Shareef Tarabaih, Mr. Anwar Al-Halah, and Mr. Mohammed abo
al-Dheeb, all of whom are part of the local sta working in the
Azraq wetland reserve. They allocated their me, eort, and
resources to make this project a success.
26 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 27
Aphanius sirhani; Male [Le] and Female [Right]. Photos: Nashat Hamidan
Tilng at windmills: Conservaon of Valencia hispanica
Ma Ford
Seriously Fish
In his novel “El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha”
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s hero Don Quixote contests a
famously hopeless bale. Sadly, this may also be proving true
of the world’s longest-established conservaon eort for a non-
commercial freshwater sh species. Valencia hispanica, another
Iberian nave, connues to struggle for survival.
Restricted to a small poron of Spain’s Mediterranean coast
and known locally as “samaruc” it is arguably among the most
endangered freshwater shes in the world. It has been included in
Appendix II of the Bern Convenon (a binding internaonal legal
instrument in the eld of nature conservaon, which covers most
of the natural heritage of the European connent and extends to
some States of Africa) as a highly endangered species since 1979.
It was also designated a priority for conservaon in Annexes II
and IV of the European Union Habitats Direcve 92/43/EEC. In
1996 it was assessed as Endangered by the IUCN, but reclassied
as Crically Endangered in 2005 due to an apparent populaon
decline in excess of 80% since the mid-1990s (Crivelli, 2006).
The samaruc is also considered In Danger Of Exncon in both
the Spanish Catalogue of Endangered Species and Annex I of the
Valencian Catalogue of Endangered Species, while in Catalunya it is
included as a Species Of Special Interest under Law 3/1988 for the
protecon of animals. An extensive regional programme of capve
breeding and release has been ongoing for more than two decades
and the species has also featured in four EU-Life projects during
this period. In a legislave sense it is thus among the most well-
protected freshwater sh species in Europe - but alien invaders
cannot read the laws.
Of the nine remaining populaons two are thought to have been
released by aquarists, and one is in a drasc state while the other
inhabits a ny, fragile lagoon. The remaining seven have all been
heavily augmented or created arcially using capve-raised sh,
with several aempts at the laer having also been abandoned.
Thousands of individuals connue to be released each year, but
there is lile sign of improvement at most localies (BDBCV,
2013). The unfortunate implicaon is that if habitat quality cannot
be further improved this jewel of Valencia will soon join ‘The
Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha’ and other naonal treasures
in the ranks of Spanish legend.
References
BDBCV - Banco de Datos Biodiversidad Comunidad Valenciana: hp://
bdb.cma.gva.es
Crivelli, A.J. 2006. Valencia hispanica. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species. Version 2013
Generalitat Valenciana (eds). 1999. Peces Ciprinodóndos Ibéricos Fartet
y Samaruc. Conselleria de Medio Ambiente, Generalitat Valenciana. 357
pp.
Rio Bullent, Pego-Oliva Natural Park, Valenciana
home to one of last remaining natural populaons.
Inset: Valencia hispanica. Photos: Ma Ford
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 29
A Crically Endangered freshwater sh species of North
Africa likely to be exnct in the wild
Mahmoud Bacha1, Chabane Benamirouche and Jörg Freyhof2
1 Université du Lioral Côte d’Opale, France; 2 Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz
Instute for Animal Biodiversity, Germany
The freshwater biodiversity of North Africa has been assessed
against the IUCN Red List criteria in 2010 (García et al., 2010).
With 27 % of the freshwater sh species threatened, their status
is surprisingly good for such an arid area. Only one species,
Aphanius saourensis, had been assessed as Crically Endangered.
Aphanius saourensis is endemic to the Oued Saoura basin in the
Algerian Sahara. Once it might have been widespread throughout
the basin, but when it was last found, in 2004, only one remnant
populaon (near Mazzer) remained. When the species was
described in 2006 (Blanco et al., 2006), it was already menoned
that “The presence of introduced North American Gambusia sp.
poses a serious threat, with current densies of Gambusia to
Aphanius being more than 100 to one. Excessive groundwater
withdrawal for agricultural purposes, the drying of wetlands,
and water polluon are, along with the introduced Gambusia,
the major threats to the survival of this species. Its survival is
unlikely in the wild, but a small capve breeding programme is
underway. Such capve populaons exist in several European
countries. In 2013, the German Killish Associaon (DKG) in
collaboraon with Jörg Freyhof (also IUCN SSC/WI FFSG Regional
Chair for Europe) funded a small project to support Mahmoud
Bacha and Chabane Benamirouche from Algeria to search again
for the species at its type locality and other water bodies in the
Oued Saoura. Mahmoud and his team spent ve days in the area
and checked the type locality and all adjacent water bodies, but
only got depressing results. Besides Gambusia holbrooki, only
alien lapia (Oreochromis nilocus) could be found. There was
no trace of the Aphanius. Naturally, a negave record is dicult
to make and there might be sll the chance to re-discover the
species in the wild. But it is at least quite likely, that the species is
now exnct in the wild.
Based on the actual results, we should treat the capve stock in a
way as if the wild populaon is gone. The next queson is, could
the Aphanius be re-introduced to the wild? As its exncon in
the wild was caused by the impact of alien species, these must be
removed from future re-introducon sites. This might be a real
challenge, even in a dry area as the Algerian Sahara.
This is the third exnct freshwater sh species in the Maghreb
aer the exncon of Salmo pallaryi from its only lacustrine
habitat in Morocco, and Luciobarbus annorii, which vanished
from its habitat in the Tunisian Sahara. It should be noted that
there are at least four more North African species, which might
be at the very brink of exncon: Aphanius apodus, Barbus reinii,
Ptercapoeta maroccana and Salaria atlanca. These have either
not been assessed yet, or have been assessed as Data Decient
as no data were available from the poorly known area. More
detailed eldwork is urgently needed to search for them now,
while there is some small chance they are sll extant.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 29
Habitats in the Oued Saoura basin, Algerian Sahara
30 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 31
The freshwater sh biodiversity of Iran was assessed by us against
the IUCN Red List criteria in the summer of 2013. While the results
are not yet publically available, it is already clear that the area
is of great conservaon concern. One of the species which we
might have already lost since 2013 is the Fars tooth-carp Aphanius
farsicus, an endemic species in the endorheic Lake Maharlu
basin. Back in 1976, this species was common in springs and small
streams, pools and qanats around the hypersaline lake and was
found in at least 15 sites. While the situaon was more or less
stable in the period of 1976 - 2000, the species fast disappeared
from all but one site in the 21st century. Water bodies just dried
out due to the massive water extracon and the shortage of
rainfall in the area. By 2013, only one spring remained in the area,
but this spring is intensively used as a sh farm. Aphanius farsicus
might sll exist at this one site, but was not found during recent
eld work and might also already have vanished.
Two capve populaons of A. farsicus exist in Europe and a third
one in Iran. While it is no major problem to produce this species
in numbers, the possibilies to reintroduce it into nature are sll
unexplored. As all, but one, of the natural habitats have dried
out, alternave habitats need to be found in the area avoiding
a situaon of the Jordanian killish Aphanius sirhani, which now
only exist in arcial habitats, within its dried out former range
(see ‘What to do if there is no more water’ pp. 26).
Spring Pirbanoo, which later dried out
Aphanius farsicus might be exnct in the wild
Hamid Reza Esmaeili1 and Jörg Freyhof2
1 Department of Biology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran; 2Zoological Research Museum Alexander
Koenig, Leibniz Instute for Animal Biodiversity, Germany
Conservaon acon for the Aci Göl toothcarp,
Aphanius transgrediens
Baran Yoğurtçoğlu and Güler Ekmekci
Hydrobiology Secon, Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Haceepe University, Turkey
There is a diverse and rich fauna of killishes in Anatolia, Turkey
and several species suer a high risk of exncon in the near
future. Aer lisng the Aci Göl toothcarp as one of the most
threatened species of the world by Baillie and Butcher (2012),
some conservaon acon has started and there is now great
hope that the species will be saved in the future. This is a great
example of how species at the edge of exncon can be saved
with relavely lile eorts, but great awareness.
Aphanius transgrediens is endemic to a spring system of Lake
Acıgöl. Lake Acıgöl possesses Turkey’s largest sodium sulphate
reserves that are extensively used in industry. In addion to
industrial acvies, a dense populaon of alien Gambusia
holbrooki is a serious threat to A. transgrediens. Gambusia preys
on fry of Aphanius and much outnumbers the nave killish in
most places. The Acıgöl spring system consists of about 30 small-
sized freshwater springs owing into the lake and the whole
spring system has been invaded by Gambusia.
Within this framework, we have been carrying out a conservaon
project including in-situ and ex-situ breeding programmes and
environmental educaon to the local community. The project
has been nancially supported by the Ruord Small Grants
Organizaon for 12 months. Aer six months, the most important
outcomes of the project have been completed.
Conservaon acons include an inial assessment of the
complete spring eld. For this purpose; a) some physical-chemical
properes of water have been measured on a monthly basis; b)
classicaon of the springs according to their origins was carried
out by isotope analysis; and c) dominant vegetaon and plankton
communies were determined. In parallel with these studies, sh
samplings and sh counts were carried out to determine absence
or presence of the species, abundance of individuals, and relave
abundance of individuals of Aphanius and Gambusia in each
spring, etc.
Since we had planned to establish viable stocks of Aphanius
transgredins in its nave habitat, we decided to conduct a
pilot study by transporng a certain number of Aphanius to a
Gambusia-free man-made pond at the south side of the lake,
which was created during the project.
As public awareness is the key for the long-term success of the
project, we aim to make all the regional people and communies
“proud of their endemic treasure”. Our rst environmental
educaon aempt was organized for elementary schools of
Başmakçı, which is the closest village to our study area. We made
a presentaon about who we are, what we are doing, why the
biodiversity and species conservaon are important and what
kind of sh species we want to protect or remove (i.e. invasive
species).
To accomplish a long-lasng conservaon in the future, more
detailed assessments, including conservaons genecs and
experimental approaches and building more Gambusia-free
ponds are urgently needed. For these acons, we are currently
searching for addional funds.
Reference
Baillie, J.E.M. and Butcher, E.R. 2012. Priceless or Worthless? The world’s
most threatened species. Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom.
30 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 31
Gambusia free man-made pond [le] and sh sampling [right]
Project t-shirt [le] and local students wearing the project t-shirt [right]
32 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 33
Southern African gersh populaon learns to
acvely predate on swallows on the wing
Gordon O’Brien1, Francois Jacobs1, Steven Evans2 and Nico Smit2
1Instute of Natural Resources and School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa; 2 Water Research Group, Unit of Environmental Sciences and Management, North West North
University, South Africa.
Beneath the tranquil waters of an innocent looking lake in the
heart of southern Africa, where migrang swallows stop to feed
and drink on route to summer feeding habitats, an unusual
ferocious predator awaits their arrival. Very few accounts of
freshwater sh predang acvely on birds exist, and no conrmed
accounts of sh acvely predang on birds while in ight have
been documented, unl now.
In the Schroda man-made Lake in the Mapungupwe Naonal
Park in South Africa (22°11'32.54"S and 29°25'59.93"E), the local
gersh (Hydrocynus viatus) populaon, established in 2003,
has adapted a unique ability to acvely prey on low ying barn
swallows (Hirundo rusca) by leaping out of the water (Fouché
et al., 2008; O’Brien et al., in press). This natural phenomenon
showcases the ability of animals to idenfy unusual sources of
food and learn to ulise these resources. The migraon of the
barn swallow populaon coincides with the spawning period of
the local gersh populaon and this might be advantageous to
the gersh, but the extent of their dependence on the migrang
swallow populaon is unknown (O’Brien et al., in press). This
ecologically important populaon of gersh sll occurs in an
ecosystem that may have been considered to be unsuitable
without this unique adaptaon (O’Brien et al., in press).
This discovery was made in 2011 by sciensts who were
monitoring the behavioural ecology of the gersh populaon in
Schroda Lake as a part of a greater scienc study (O’Brien et al.,
2012). During a summer survey to Schroda Lake in 2011, some
gersh that were tagged and tracked displayed uncharacterisc
increases in acvity in a deep, open water area of the lake.
This open water area was not associated with any previously
established feeding or refuge areas of the gersh populaon in
the lake. This uncharacterisc behaviour alerted the sciensts to
other gersh in the area that were leaping out of the water.
Fish swirl, porpoise and leap out of water for all sorts of reasons so,
apart from the me of day and locaon, this was not considered
to be usual. Francois then realised that the sh were aacking
swallows that were feeding and/or drinking while in ight just
above the surface of the lake. The swallows seemed to be forced
Hydrocynus viatus
Photo: Gordon O’Brien
32 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 33
to congregate in one part of the lake, possibly due to the steep
banks that surrounded the lake. Numerous successful and
unsuccessful aerial aacks were observed by gersh. Some
of these aacks were documented using moon picture video
camera (Fouché et al., 2008). Two predaon strategies were
displayed by the gersh populaon that predated on as many
een individual swallows per day. These strategies included
surface or near-surface pursuits that were visible, followed by
aerial strikes, and direct aerial strikes iniated from deep water
that were not visible. The surface pursuit strategies were less
successful than direct aerial strikes iniated from deeper areas.
This discovery suggests that even the tranquil surfaces of lakes
in Africa that provide migrang swallows with water during
migraons are unsafe, and that the gersh populaon in
Schroda Lake may sll exist only because of the presence of a
food source in the ecosystem which has, unl recently, never
been documented.
References
Fouché, P.S.O., Angliss, M.K. and Gagiano, C. 2008. A baseline assessment
of the aquac ecology and limology of Schroda manmade lake (Limpopo
Province) with specic reference to the gersh populaon (Hydrocynus
viatus). Report by Enviro-Soluon Systems for Venea Conservaon
Society, De Beers Venea Mine.
O’Brien, G.C., Jacobs, F., Evans, S.W. and Smit, N.J. In Press. First
observaon of Africa gersh (Hydrocynus viatus) predang on Barn
Swallows (Hirundo rusca) in ight. Journal of Fish Biology 84, 263–266
O’Brien, G.C., Buln, J.B., Husted, A. and Smit N.J. 2012. A. Comparave
behavioural assessment of an established and new Tigersh (Hydrocynus
viatus) populaon in two arcial impoundments in the Limpopo
catchment, southern Africa. African Journal of Aquac Sciences 37(3),
1-8.
A schemac of the avivorous behavioural strategies
adopted by Hydrocynus viatus in the Schroda Dam
man-made lake.
OPINION
Tackling giants: geng the most out of working
groups for freshwater sh conservaon
Harmony C. Patricio1 and Steph Januchowski-Hartley2
1 Society for Conservaon Biology – Freshwater Working Group, and FISHBIO; 2 Society for
Conservaon Biology – Freshwater Working Group, and Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-
Madison
Quick! O the top of your head: List the number of “working
groups”, “boards” “commiees”, “consorums”, coalions”, or
“networks” you have been involved with in the past ve years.
Are you quickly moving past one handful of ngers? Now think
about what proporon of these groups are truly successful in
achieving their stated goals. How many groups are at least acve
to a degree? Is the proporon fairly low?
With all these dierent enes, our limited me, and our desire
to aect change, how then can we be the most producve? Many
of us recognize the importance of uning people from dierent
regions or disciplines or sectors to address a common goal. Yet,
we repeatedly see progress stalling, a few acve members taking
on too much burden, and eventually some groups languish to
nothing more than a name. Why does this happen so frequently
in the conservaon realm? Could it be because our passion leads
us to say “yes” to requests to parcipate in groups when we
realiscally may not have the me to contribute much?
How then can we be most producve given our limited me?
Asking this queson isn’t easy, but it is essenal if we want to
achieve the goal of “Saving Freshwater Fishes and Habitats”.
We propose that freshwater sh specialists represenng
various groups and commiees can be much more eecve by
communicang amongst groups with the goal of idenfying three
priority issues for any given year. Each group may have dierent
tools to oer that will enable measurable progress on these
priority issues. Each group can bite o a piece of the problem that
they are best posioned to tackle. Many groups do communicate
and collaborate, but to our knowledge there is no central clearing-
house where informaon on acvies and priories of various
groups is easily accessible.
We propose development of an umbrella forum to increase our
producvity, enable informaon sharing, and reach the goal of
establishing three priority issues through collecve decision.
Many of us use RSS feeds to receive consolidated updates. Reddit
has become one of the most popular websites for informaon
exchange, with entries organized into over 5,400 topical
categories. Each category or group is termed a “subreddit”.
Registered members of a subreddit are enabled to rank the posts
according to their relave importance. The basic funconality
of the umbrella forum we propose would be similar to an RSS
feed or a subreddit. Everyone subscribed would either receive
updates or have access to a URL where they can easily view, rank,
or contribute to the list of posts. Given the technology exists,
why not use it to enhance communicaon amongst freshwater
groups and to priorize shared priories? Considering the
myriad enes operang in the freshwater realm, it is essenal
for complementary groups to engage one another to idenfy
opportunies to align eorts both for collaboraon and to take
posions on crical issues.
The emerging applicaon of Social Network Analysis to
conservaon also oers a set of tools that can increase the
eecveness of collaboraons. For example, Mills et al. (2014)
state, “Invesng in areas that are highly connected both
ecologically and through social networks could lead to potenally
more ecient deployment of resources through more eecve
implementaon.” While it might not always be feasible to use
formal assessments to idenfy the most procient methods for
collaboraon; thinking along these lines can enable idencaon
of tools that guide us towards more producve decision-making
and resource allocaon.
How else can we build collaboraons that are producve in
achieving conservaon outcomes? Over the past few years we,
the authors, have been engaged in the Society for Conservaon
Biology (SCB) and its Freshwater Working Group. The SCB is very
producve in many respects, and several key policies inuencing
conservaon have come from its members. Unfortunately, we have
seen an obvious lack of involvement from freshwater sciensts in
the Society, and a decline in the number of papers focused on
34 OPINION OPINION 35
34 OPINION OPINION 35
fresh waters published in the journal Conservaon Biology. We
have started asking ourselves, where are the freshwater sciensts
in the SCB? Do many people working on freshwater consider their
eorts to be outside the realm of conservaon biology?
We believe the Society for Conservaon Biology is a plaorm that
has not been eecvely exploited by freshwater sciensts. The
Society provides channels for pursuing funding to support core
eorts, and access to decision makers at a high level. Perhaps
many freshwater sh specialists do not think of themselves as
conservaon biologists, while alternavely many conservaon
biologists may not be aware of the vital role their work can
play in conservaon of freshwater biodiversity. In actuality,
most organisms of interest to conservaon biologists, even the
terrestrial, depend on healthy aquac ecosystems nearly as much
as the sh living in the water itself.
If we wish to contribute producvely to saving freshwater shes
and habitats, we must step outside of the comfort zone. It’s a lile
pond for freshwater sciensts, so let’s make ripples. It will be the
combined force of us each holding down one rope on a singular
crical issue that will enable us to conquer giant challenges.
Reach out. Focus your energy. Keep looking for key outcomes
being pursued by other groups with which you can easily align
the acvies of a group you are already part of. Engage players
from sectors that have an economic interest in fresh water
resources. Take steps to idenfy where you can be most eecve
so you don’t get burned out. Share your knowledge with those
in other elds who are doing something big for conservaon,
and show them how important freshwater biodiversity is. We
may not have furry and cuddly criers, but our work targets the
most highly threatened species and systems on the planet. It’s
me for freshwater specialists to have a greater role in the global
conservaon agenda.
Reference
Mills, M., Álvarez-Romero, J.G., Vance-Borland, K., Cohen, P.,
Pressey, R.L, Guerrero, A. M. and Ernstson, H. 2014. Linking regional
planning and local acon: Towards using social network analysis
in systemac conservaon planning. Biological Conservaon 169:
6-13.
Resource
Society for Conservaon Biology – Freshwater Working Group:
hp://www.conbio.org/groups/working-groups/freshwater
NOTICEBOARD
36 NOTICEBOARD NOTICEBOARD 37
We want to invite you to take part in World Fish Migraon Day 2014 on the 24th May. This internaonal event calls
aenon to the need to safeguard free owing rivers and to restore the connecons in rivers for migratory sh.
WHY DO WE CARE?
Migratory sh (like salmon, trout, shad, lamprey, giant caish, sturgeon and eel) are threatened worldwide by barriers such
as weirs, dams and sluices built for water management, hydropower and land drainage. This makes it dicult for sh to reach
their spawning grounds, and can conceivably cause species exncon. Millions of people around the world rely on these
shes as their primary source of protein and for their livelihoods. Water managers and conservaonists are striving to protect
and improve sh migraon routes between and within rivers, deltas and the oceans. These ‘sh highways’ are vital for their
survival.
World Fish Migraon Day is held to improve the public’s understanding of the importance of free owing rivers and migratory
sh routes for sh. Raising awareness, sharing ideas, securing commitments and building communies around river basins are
essenal aspects of sh passage and river restoraon. On this day, we will connect celebraons and events that start in New
Zealand, and follow the sun; ending as the sun sets on the west coast of North America.
More than 250 locaons will be connected worldwide. We are looking for organizaons that want to join this inspiring
iniave. There is already an excing array of events planned, varying from a sh way tour in the Kruger Naonal Park (South
Africa) to walks along the River Kuma (Japan) to observe the dam removal project to talks, seminars and kids’ acvies
planned in many countries around the world.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ORGANIZE AN EVENT?
Parcipang organizaons will organize their own event (e.g. acvity sessions, workshops or talks) and outreach
communicaon, under the umbrella of the World Fish Migraon Day. Educaonal material will be available to share with
visitors. Wanningen Water Consult & LINKit consult, partnering with WWF (NL), The Nature Conservancy (USA) and the IUCN
SSC/Wetlands Internaonal Freshwater Fish Specialist Group, will take care of the central coordinaon, internaonal publicity
and maintain the main website. The projects will be highlighted on the website, social media and in the press. On the day
itself, the oces of water authority ‘Amstel, Gooi and Vecht’ (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) will serve as the headquarters of
WFMD
For more informaon
Web: www.worldshmigraonday.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WorldFishMigraonDay
Twier: twier.com/WFMD2014
Instagram: instagram.com/shmigraonday
To organize an event, please contact us:
Email: herman@wanningenwaterconsult.nl
Phone: 0031-6-182 725 72
CONNECTING FISH, RIVERS AND PEOPLE
IFM Lamprey Conference 2014
Internaonal conference on the biology, conservaon and management of
lamprey.
Naonal Science Learning Centre, York, England
6th – 7th May 2014
The conference will be held in the historic city of York and aims to provide a forum for discussion
and networking for people engaged in work on these enigmac species. There will be oponal
eld trips on May 8th for those who are able to stay longer.
We are pleased to announce that Professor Margaret Docker from the University of Manitoba
and Dr Pedro Almeida from the University of Evora in Portugal will be presenng the keynote
addresses.
There has been interest from across the globe with papers submied from 14 dierent countries
to date with numerous dierent species highlighted. We aim to bring as many people as possible
together to share their knowledge and research on lampreys, with the hope that we can raise the
prole of this oen forgoen group of shes.
If you are interested in any of the 35 species of
lamprey at sea, in rivers or in lakes, then this is
the conference for you.
Registraon is now open on the IFM website
36 NOTICEBOARD NOTICEBOARD 37
38 NOTICEBOARD NOTICEBOARD 39
38 NOTICEBOARD NOTICEBOARD 39
NEXT ISSUE OF ‘SAVING FRESHWATER FISHES AND HABITATS’
Do you want to share news from your freshwater sh conservaon project with a global
audience? Are you doing fascinang research or organising an excing event? Well, the FFSG
Newsleer could be the perfect way to tell your story!
The deadline for subming material for the next issue is 9th May 2014.
If you have any quesons or if you want to submit material, please email info@iucnsg.org
The Freshwater Fish Specialist Group is
generously supported by Chester Zoo, UK.
www.chesterzoo.org
... For instance, poeciliids have contributed to the decline, exclusion and extirpation of native Aphaniidae and Procatopodidae through competition [46,74,162,184]. Many of these species are facing anthropogenic pressures [50,182], are classified as Critically Endangered [119] and are trigger species in key biodiversity areas [133]. Invasive poeciliid predation can contribute to population declines in native African invertebrates (e.g. ...
Article
Full-text available
Background This review compiles and synthesises the existing information concerning non-native poeciliid introductions to Africa. The recent upsurge in research on invasive poeciliids has revealed their widespread occurrence in Africa. Results Within the 87 relevant articles, 74% reported on the presence of Gambusia spp., 33% on P. reticulata , 19% on X. hellerii , 11% on X. maculatus , and 5% on other ornamental poeciliids. Overall, poeciliids have been documented as introduced to 25 different countries in Africa. With Gambusia spp. being introduced to 16 countries and P. reticulata to 19 countries. Our results are representative of the current state of research on invasive poeciliids in Africa. There was a concentration of studies in South Africa, with limited research elsewhere. Current distribution data is relatively patchy, although widespread surveys of multiple river systems in Morocco and South Africa, confirmed widespread and abundant established poeciliid populations. The ecological impacts of invasive poeciliids in Africa remain understudied but evidence indicates deleterious effects on native fish, invertebrates, and amphibians, many of which are critically endangered or endemic. Conclusion Current research is limited in reporting from certain countries and ecological impacts. An increased effort to monitor species composition in vulnerable waterbodies, especially in the many African countries where invasive poeciliids are reported, should be completed to reveal further established populations. Future research should prioritise quantifying the ecological impacts of invasive poeciliids in the field and identifying both vulnerable and resistant native ecosystems to guide future management decisions.
... Four species at least are present in Algeria: A. fasciatus (Nardo, 1827), A. saourensis (Blanco et al. 2006), A. apodus (Gervais, 1853), A. iberus (Valenciennes, 1846) (Blanco et al. 2006;Kara 2012;Guezi et al. 2017). The presence of Aphanius saourensis in the natural environment is unlikely (Bacha et al. 2014). ...
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This paper studies the biology of reproduction and growth of the Mediterranean killifish Aphanius fasciatus in Mellah Lagoon (Algeria). This work helps to complete data lacks for this species concerning West Mediterranean and especially the westmost known distributions limit. A total of 1169 individuals (14.3 mm ≥ TL ≥ 54.4 mm, 0.06 g ≥ TW ≥ 3.89 g) caught monthly from January to December 2012, were examined. The population has a 6-year life cycle. Length–weight relationship was estimated as TW = 0.0093 LT3.513 (r2 = 0.804) for males and TW = 0.0091 TL3.504 (r2 = 0.766) for females. The von Bertalanffy growth function fitted to back-calculated size at age data was: Lt = 49.45 [1 - e-0.274 (t + 1.177)] for males, Lt = 59.03 [1 - e-0.179 (t + 1.514)] for females. The growth performance index (Φ) indicate that females (Φ = 6.67) grew slightly faster than males (Φ = 6.50). Sex-ratio was 1:1.6 in favor of females. The reproductive season extended from February to July. The length at first sexual maturity was 3.84 cm for males and 4.14 cm for females.
... In the Mediterranean, the genus Aphanius is composed of not more than eight species of which five live in North Africa (A. apodus, A. desioi, A. dispar dispar, A. saourensis, A. fasciatus) (García et al. 2010) and four in Algeria: Aphanius apodus (Gervais, 1853), Aphanius saourensis (Blanco et al. 2006), Aphanius iberus (Valenciennes, 1846), Aphanius fasciatus (Nardo, 1827) (Blanco et al. 2006;Kara 2012). Aphanius saourensis is likely extinct in the wild (Bacha et al., 2014). ...
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The Mediterranean tooth carp Aphanius fasciatus, a strongly eurythermic and euryhaline species, is an important component of the ichthyofauna in the valley of Oued Righ, situated in Algerian low Sahara. This study aims to understand the life history of this species in arid environment. A total of 1868 individuals (16.7–60.2 mm TL, 0.04–26.8 g TW) were collected between November 2010 and November 2011 from Ayata Lake (Algerian low Sahara). Individual age was determined by scalimetry. Some aspects of the sexual cycle are studied. The population was composed of 6 age classes in both sexes. Back-calculations of total length-at-age were suitably adjusted to von Bertalanffy growth model with: Lt = 80.00 [1−e−0.172 (t + 1.377)] for females and Lt = 77.58 [1−e−0.138(t + 2.236)] for males. The fitted total length-total weight relationship was W = 0.013 L2.848 for females, W = 0.013 L2.809 for males. Spawning occurs once a year between February and July with peak activity in May for Females and in April for Males. Gonado-somatic index reaches a maximum of 4.16% in males and 15.73% in females. The length at the first sexual maturity is 45 mm for both sexes.
... Sadly, the African pupfish Aphanius sauorensis has recently been declared extinct in the wild due to human modification of the habitat and the introduction of non-native species. Hope exists that a captive bred population might preserve the species from total extinction (Bacha et al. 2014). Captive breeding programs, while essential for preservation of species whose habitats have become inhospitable, present problems that must be considered if they are designed to provide progeny that can eventually be reintroduced to their native habitats. ...
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Desert fishes may seem paradoxical, but there is an extensive and diverse ichthyofauna associated with deserts around the globe. Examining the distribution and biology of extant species allows the generation of hypotheses that address questions about how desert fishes evolved and persist in what appear to be inhospitable environments. Desert fishes are usually hardy fish that persisted through the desertification process. Patterns of dispersal and vicariance can vary between sympatric taxa suggesting differential exploitation of stochastic events. For instance, one fish species may have used a dispersal event to occupy a new region whereas another species did not. Oftentimes, stepwise patterns of dispersal and vicariance occur that correlate with profound geomorphological changes. Fish that evolve rapidly radiate into distinct taxa whereas fish that more robustly avail themselves of dispersal opportunities persist with wider distributions. The accelerated and profound alterations of anthropogenic influences on dispersal, vicariance, and environmental change for desert fishes represent severe threats to their continued survival.
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Background This review compiles and synthesises the existing information concerning non-native poecillid introductions to Africa. The recent upsurge in research on invasive poeciliids has revealed their widespread occurrence in Africa. Results Within the 87 relevant articles, 74% reported on the presence Gambusia spp., 33% on P. reticulata, 19% on X. hellerii, 11% on X. maculatus, and 5% on other ornamental poeciliids. Overall, poeciliids have been introduced to 25 different countries in Africa, with Gambusia spp. being introduced to 16 countries and P. reticulata to 19 countries. Our results are representative of the current state of research on invasive poecilids in Africa. In particular there was a concentration of studies in South Africa, with limited research elsewhere. Current distribution data is relatively patchy, although widespread surveys of multiple river systems in Morocco and South Africa, confirmed widespread and abundant established poeciliid populations. The ecological impacts of invasive poeciliids in Africa remain understudied but evidence indicates deleterious effects on native fish, invertebrates, and amphibians, many of which are critically endangered or endemic species. Conclusion An increased effort to monitor species composition in vulnerable waterbodies, especially in the many African countries where invasive poeciliids are reported should be completed and to reveal further established populations. Future research should prioritise quantifying the ecological impacts of invasive poeciliids in the field and identifying both vulnerable and resistant native ecosystems to guide future management decisions.
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Une fiche de sensibilisation à propos de la gambusie, un poisson largement répandu dans le monde, notamment en Algérie, pour son efficacité dans la lutte biologique contre les moustiques. Mais qui s'avère problématique, vue son impact sur la faune autochtone.
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Although also formerly present in two lochs in South West Scotland, populations of vendace (Coregonus albula) were until recently believed to persist in only two U.K. lakes, i.e., Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent Water in North West England. However, although Derwent Water has retained its natural mesotrophic conditions and the status of its vendace population is acceptable, monitoring at Bassenthwaite Lake has failed to record any specimens since 2000 and the species has recently been declared locally extinct. Bassenthwaite Lake has experienced increasing problems from eutrophication, sedimentation and the introduction of fi sh species including roach (Rutilus rutilus) and ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernuus), both of which have more recently also been introduced to Derwent Water and give concern over possible food competition and egg predation. In addition to monitoring, considerable efforts have been made in recent years to conserve vendace through the protection and improvement of their habitats and the establishment of refuge populations. The latter has resulted in the establishment of a population originating from Bassenthwaite Lake in Loch Skeen of South West Scotland, with further attempts still in progress at two other sites. Public awareness of the conservation of this species, which is the U.K.’s rarest freshwater fi sh, has also been actively promoted.
Peces Ciprinodóntidos Ibéricos Fartet y Samaruc. Conselleria de Medio Ambiente, Generalitat Valenciana
  • Generalitat Valenciana
Generalitat Valenciana (eds). 1999. Peces Ciprinodóntidos Ibéricos Fartet y Samaruc. Conselleria de Medio Ambiente, Generalitat Valenciana. 357 pp.