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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
• Killishes 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 Citaon of Excellence
by Suzanne Turnock
7New Global Freshwater Fish BioBlitz to Monitor Fish Species with Help of ‘Cizen Sciensts’
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 Acon Plans for freshwater shes
by Carla Polaz
16 U.K.’s rarest freshwater sh ‘reappears’
by Ian J. Wineld and Andrew R.D. Gowans
17 In search of the Mangarahara cichlid
by Brian Zimmerman
23 A community-led sh sanctuary iniave on Hainan Island, China
by Bosco P.L. Chan
26 Killishes on the edge
by Jörg Freyhof
26 What to do if there is no more water? Conservaon of Aphanius sirhani, the Azraq Killish
by Nashat Hamidan
28 Tilng at windmills: Conservaon of Valencia hispanica
by Ma Ford
29 A Crically Endangered freshwater sh species of North Africa likely to be exnct in the wild
by Mahmoud Bacha, Chabane Benamirouche and Jörg Freyhof
30 Aphanius farsicus might be exnct in the wild
by Hamid Reza Esmaeili and Jörg Freyhof
30 Conservaon acon for the Aci Göl toothcarp, Aphanius transgrediens
by Baran Yoğurtçoğlu and Güler Ekmekci
32 Southern African gersh populaon learns to acvely predate on swallows on the wing
by Gordon O’Brien,, Francois Jacobs, Steven Evans and Nico Smit
OPINION
34 Tackling giants: geng the most out of working groups for freshwater sh conservaon
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) castneng 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 internaonal organisaons that aempt to address global
issues across cultures, regional interests and history, specic
environmental and polical circumstances, religions, views on
the meaning of life, and so forth, faces the daunng tasks of
building a dialogue in the Tower of Babel. Precisely because the
overall vision of these organisaons is so daunng, we invariably
nd that we are unable to fulll all the required tasks, and so
the organisaons oen fall short of expectaons 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 conversaon with the lm director Werner Herzog, I asked
him what he deemed some of his most signicant contribuons
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 texng and driving. In it, Werner interviewed
and portrayed a story of a young couple who were having fun
texng while driving across the middle USA, in what seemed
empty roads; in a moment of distracon 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, aer 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 prevenon of destrucon and pain, at mes even single
instances, can be transcendental. At a luncheon with Crisana
Figueres she expressed to me that her greatest frustraon in
running the climate change iniave of the UN was the seemingly
fule aempt to make a signicant impact of such global/universal
proporons, and that oen, in face of such fulity, people
abandon all hope and thus do nothing! Well, IUCN indeed faces
the fulity of saving all species and their environments, but must
celebrate the accomplishments it has made and connues to make,
everyday, in saving so many species, and their environments, and
thus, life in its many manifestaons. It is a privilege to be part of
this organizaon 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 connue supporng and enjoying all, its
daunng 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 celebrang
50 years of guiding conservaon acon. Learn more
Welcome to the new Global Chair, Dr Richard Sneider
Katalin Csatádi
FFSG Programme Ocer
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 commiee, chaired by South Africa’s Professor Paul Skelton was
put in place and the call went out for nominaons. FFSG members
responded well to the announcement and sent us the names
of various, excellent ichthyologists, conservaonists and other
professionals. They were asked to declare whether they accepted
the nominaon and if so, then to prepare a wrien statement of
why they would like to chair the FFSG and to describe their idea
of the group’s future.
Amongst the nominaons 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 connue 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
mulcultural, being born in Mexico, living in the USA, travelling
around the world. He serves on the board of Conservaon
Internaonal and Los Angeles Zoo; he regularly parcipates 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 Ocer. Ian has already been a very
important member of FFSG; he has acted as a Steering Commiee member and as
Special Advisor for Fundraising.
Ian obtained his Ph.D. in systemac ichthyology at the University of Bristol (UK) has
conducted postdoctoral research on marine and freshwater shes in universies
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 Pacic.
He has assisted IUCN’s Global Species Programme, coordinang acvies for
the Global Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment, a joint programme run by IUCN,
Conservaon Internaonal (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 internaonal collaborave project, funded
by the Belmont Forum.
Changes to the FFSG Secretariat
Dr Fareed Krupp has resigned from his posion 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 Commiee in Doha, Qatar.
We thank Fareed for his important contribuons to the FFSG
and welcome his contribuon as an ordinary member (without
the extra commitments of a Regional Chair) for the near future.
Dr Katalin Csatádi is leaving the FFSG aer serving as
Programme Ocer 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’ Meeng 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 Chair’s Citaon of Excellence
Suzanne Turnock
FFSG Programme Ocer
In February 2014, Gordon McGregor Reid received the SSC Chair’s
Citaon of Excellence in recognion for his exemplary, visionary
and charismac leadership of the Freshwater Fish Specialist
Group, between 2004 and 2013. The Citaon of Excellence,
created in 2004, is awarded in recognion of outstanding
contribuons 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
disnguished award, Gordon has shared the following words:
“In gaining the IUCN SSC Chair’s Citaon 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 presgious awards on
their own. The Zoo has been working in close partnership with
the IUCN (formerly the World Conservaon 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 conservaon. We have, over the years, worked
with many SSC Specialist Groups, notably: the Conservaon
Breeding SG, Reintroducon 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 aer 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 Internaonal. 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 Brish Museum of Natural History; and in the
wild in Africa and elsewhere overseas.
By 2004, the FFSG moved from being an informal collecve
of conservaon enthusiasts to a fully reconstuted body, ocially
recognized and co-governed by the SSC and Wetlands Internaonal.
FFSG sh conservaon 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 appoinng a part-me
Programme Ocer: rst Claudine Gibson; later Katalin Csatádi;
and, most recently, Suzanne Turnock who is sll 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 substanal organizaon with a global remit in the
conservaon of freshwater sh and their habitats. We now have
over 150 Members and 18 Regional Chairs around the world.
There are many acve and diverse FFSG programmes, projects
and partnerships in support of conservaon o-site and in the
wild. Some examples of high prole acvies in conjuncon with
Chester Zoo are, e.g. Mexican Fish Ark, Global Freshwater Fish
Bioblitz, World Fish Migraon Day …. I have now handed over to
the new FFSG Chair, Dr Richard Sneider, and his Technical Ocer,
Dr Ian Harrison. I am very happy to see that the organizaon is
in safe hands. I wish all my friends and colleagues in the FFSG
all good fortune in connuing to conserve shes and habitats;
and I intend to remain acve 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
conservaon. The FFSG has joined forces with other internaonal
groups, namely World Wildlife Fund, Conservaon Internaonal,
IUCN, Wetlands Internaonal, FishBase, the Fisheries Society of
the Brish Isles and the Group on Earth Observaons Biodiversity
Observaon Network, to introduce this new global iniave. The
BioBlitz project, designed by iNaturalist.org, will be hosted on the
FFSG website www.iucnsg.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 experse in sh taxonomy will serve as curators
to idenfy and verify the species to ensure the data are research-
grade. The informaon can assist sciensts to describe new
species, help assess the risk of exncon 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 protecon of internaonally important
habitats. “More than three-quarters of Ramsar’s Wetlands of
Internaonal Importance, or Ramsar Sites, are enrely 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 Convenon on Wetlands.
“The more data we have on the species present in our wetlands,
the beer we can manage them. The Freshwater Fish BioBlitz
will provide a wealth of essenal informaon 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 Conservaon
Internaonal, explains “Freshwater shes may be the most
endangered group of vertebrates, with a third of all species
threatened with exncon due to overshing, polluon, habitat
loss and fragmentaon, alien invasive species and climate
change.”
“The BioBlitz is our way of bringing the power of crowdsourcing
to freshwater sh conservaon,” said Michele Thieme, Senior
Freshwater Conservaon Scienst at World Wildlife Fund.
“Wildlife monitoring is vital to conservaon, 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 idenfy more species in more places than we possibly
could alone.”
“It is a huge task – with over 15,000 freshwater sh species,
and numbers connually 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 observaons and recording what they have
seen, the beer.”
New Global Freshwater Fish BioBlitz to Monitor Fish
Species with Help of ‘Cizen Sciensts’
Suzanne Turnock
FFSG Programme Ocer
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
cizen-sciensts 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 prey 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 sll looking for more volunteer ‘Curators’, to idenfy and
verify species submied by members of the public. So far we have
40 expert volunteers, but are recruing more, to ensure we have
a cross secon of experse and the commitment is not too me
consuming for individuals. Volunteers need to have experse in
sh taxonomy, expert knowledge of a taxonomic group or shes
found in a parcular geographic region and be willing to commit
me to verify species idencaons. With the Global Amphibian
BioBlitz, many specialists have beneted from observaons 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
collaboraons. It is also important to note that observaons can
be idened to coarser taxonomic levels, such as genus or family,
which is oen the case for observaons of crypc species or poor
quality photographs.
Publicity
We are looking for opportunies to promote this project to
members of the public and encourage them to upload their
observaons. 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 observaons
To make this project a success and be a valuable tool for
freshwater sh conservaon, we need people to submit their
observaons! Instrucons on how to upload observaons 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 informaon, please email info@iucnsg.org
8 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 9
Photo: Jörg Freyhof
8 FFSG UPDATE FFSG UPDATE 9
South America is an island connent. 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,
separang the South Atlanc from the South Pacic Oceans. It
has 17.84 million square kilometres and a human populaon
exceeding 387 million inhabitants.
Countries in South America are Argenna, 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 giganc, at deposional lowland,
that contains the largest rainforest of the World; the Amazon
forest. Water chemistry of South American rivers is inuenced
by these landscape features and vegetaon 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 aquac habitat types, including many of the largest rivers of the
world, extensive marshes, high-altude lakes and rivers, among
other sengs. 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 Atlanc 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 Tocanns, 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 aquac habitats are
the Andean altudinal 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 connent, which harbour very poor sh fauna.
Fishes of South America
The freshwater sh fauna of South America is the most diverse
of all connents,
with the current
number of described
species surpassing
4,000, and esmates
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 diversied 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 connent since
the end of the Gondwana break-up in the Cretaceous, roughly
100 million years ago.
South American shes are usually classied in three divisions
according to their origin and distribuon on the connent. The
Peripheral Division includes almost 300 species in 28 chiey
marine families, which have invaded and specialized for life in fresh
waters. These groups range from one to around 100 species, and
include freshwater sngrays, eels, sardines, anchovies, mullets,
needleshes, silversides, pipeshes, drums, gobies, aish and
puers, among others. The Secondary Division has above 600
species, and is composed of freshwater families that are closely
related to marine groups, but are enrely conned to connental
habitats, and include the cichlids, the highly threatened rivulids,
anablepids, cyprinodonds, and poeciliids. In contrast, the Primary
Division is composed of the Ostariophysii and four other small
families that originated and diversied in freshwater habitats:
the South American lungsh (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
knifeshes or Gymnoformes, and the caishes or Siluriformes.
Diversity of morphological adaptaons and ecological
requirements are also dramac across the South American
sh fauna. The
armoured caishes
or Loricariidae, the
largest caish 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 intesnes as an
accessory respiratory
organ. Other amazing
adaptaons can
be found among
caishes, such as the
phreac habits of
Phreatobius, a genus of a few species that live inside the soil in
river banks and are most easily captured in exisng water wells.
Possibly the strangest feeding habits among South American
shes are those of the blood-sucking, parasic candirus of the
genus Vandellia. These shes are provided with special odontodes
on their opercular area that allow them to rmly aach 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 complicaons. Also, highly feared
is the poraquê (Electrophorus) of the Gymnoformes. Most of
the species in this order are small and use their electrogenic
abilies to generate an electromagnec 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 connent, many of these habitats are
currently threatened by extensive deforestaon, water
divergence for irrigaon, hydroelectric damming and alluvial gold
mining. Fish species are further threatened by invasive species
and overexploitaon in some areas. Deforestaon and the
consequent habitat degradaon, especially the severe siltaon
of river beds, is one of the main threats to thousands of small-
to medium-sized rivers. Deforestaon in South America involves
both legal and illegal logging, clearing for cale ranching and,
especially, for expanding the agricultural froner within the
Amazon and the Atlanc forest. Hydroelectric damming aects
sh populaons in a threefold manner. The transformaon of
a loc environment into a lake signicantly changes the local
community composion.
On a wider scale, dams regulate downstream river ow, thus
disturbing the annual cycles of feeding and reproducon,
and disrupt the migratory routes of many large shes. This is
parcularly 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 condions, reach oodplains in
the low poron 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 aects aquac organisms. Rivers are heavily dredged,
in a process that usually completely destroys the river bed and
banks. In addion to degradaon of the physical habitat, the
typical use of mercury to separate the gold from the substrate,
followed by vaporizaon 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 Argenna, central and
eastern Brazil, Chile and other countries, there is one to several
introduced alien sh species. Aquaculture is the main factor
in the introducon of alien species, with salmon introduced in
south and central Chile while Brazilian rivers harbour around
13 introduced species from other connents, especially lapia,
carps, trout, ictalurid caish, clariid caish and others.
Conservaon
Despite the complex array of factors threatening South American
freshwater shes, there are few ‘on-the-ground’ conservaon
iniaves on the connent. The most important have been
the sh assessments for the preparaon of IUCN Red Lists for
dierent countries or regions in South America. Probably the
most ambious of these is the current partnership between
the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and IUCN, with the aim
of assessing the conservaon status of about 10,000 Brazilian
species, including freshwater shes and other organisms.
Another important project of sh IUCN Red Lisng, includes
the lower La Plata River basin in Argenna, 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 conservaon status
of their freshwater shes through a partnership between the
Peruvian Ministry of Environment and IUCN South America.
Priories for future acon include compleon of the conservaon
status assessments regionally and at a connental (global) level,
and then proceeding to the development of acon plans. Also,
instrumental for the future of sh conservaon in South America
will be increasing the Ph.D. level experse in sh taxonomy and
systemacs, especially in non-Brazilian countries, improving
museum facilies and inventory iniaves to uncover the
undescribed sh diversity, and fostering new iniaves of ‘on-
the-ground’ freshwater conservaon.
Text in this arcle 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.
Internaonal 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, aecng sh biodiversity paerns
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, evoluon and
conservaon. His research programme
mostly involves discovering and describing
the sh diversity of South America and
studying their phylogenec relaonships
and biogeography. He has a Ph.D. from
the University of São Paulo (1994), and
is a Professor of Biology at the Poncal
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
collecng 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
iniave to assess the conservaon 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 castneng
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/Conservaon Internaonal Biodiversity Assessment Unit, Bey & Gordon Moore Center for
Science & Oceans, Conservaon Internaonal
Last August, the IUCN-CI Biodiversity Assessment
Unit and the Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, with a
generous grant from the MacArthur Foundaon,
started a project (‘Comprehensive assessments to
understand and migate the impacts of development
on freshwater biodiversity in the Tropical Andes’) to
assess the conservaon 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 conservaon planning
and sustainable management of freshwater
biodiversity in the Andes. To meet this challenge,
a comprehensive conservaon assessment for an
ecologically representave set of, approximately,
2,500 aquac species in the Tropical Andes region
will be performed. The target groups will be
freshwater shes, freshwater molluscs, freshwater
plants, and dragonies and damselies (odonates).
Two addional noteworthy targets will be included
in the IUCN Red List assessments: the ulizaon 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
idenfy Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs; catchments
that are priories for conservaon acon) based
upon compiled biodiversity data and the review and
validaon of proposed KBAs by stakeholders.
This goal will enable proper representaon of freshwater ecosystems in
protected areas, and will promote the development of networks of protected
areas that include regions of crical biodiversity in conjuncon with regions
that supply freshwater ecosystem goods and services to dependent
communies.
14 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 15
Since its foundaon in 2007, the Chico Mendes Instute (ICMBio)
has been responsible for the Naonal Acon Plans in Brazil.
Its main mission is conserving Brazilian biodiversity, especially
inside Protected Areas. Acon Plans are public policies idenng
and guiding priority acons to combat threats that endanger
populaons of species or environments (e.g. natural caves).
The ICMBio Instrucon 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 naonal levels.
The steps of an Acon Plan, include analysing the informaon
for the idencaon of direct threats and actors and dening
objecves, goals and strategic acons to promote a change in
the risk of species exncon through parcipatory planning
workshops. Following this, ICMBio approves the publicaon of
an execuve summary and the Acon Plan’s book and connues
to oversee the implementaon of recommended acons. In
each completed year aer the rst workshop, a new monitoring
meeng takes place to establish the status of acons: concluded
(blue signal); on progress in me (green signal); ongoing with
problems (yellow signal) or delayed (red signal). An advisory
specialist group systemacally follows the implementaon
of acons unl the end of the Acon Plan ve years later. To
warrant that the Acon Plan will have greater implementaon
success, the process includes mullateral parcipaon, aiming
to establish a pact involving various segments of government,
non-governmental organizaons, conservaon experts,
representaves of local communies, the private sector and
other key stakeholders.
Chico Mendes Instute currently controls 44 Acon Plans for
fauna species with the support of the Project PROBIO II/MMA,
four of them designed for freshwater shes:
Acon 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).
Acon Plan for the threatened species of the Mogi, Pardo,
Grande and Sapucai-Mirim watersheds (Upper Paraná basin),
that comprises fourteen endangered shes.
Acon Plan for the threatened species of Rivulidae family, that
comprises more than 50 annual shes.
Acon Plan for the threatened species of the São Francisco
watershed, that comprises ve shes and four molluscs in the
Brazilian Savanah (Cerrado) (under construcon).
For more details of all Chico Mendes Instute Acon Plans,
please, visit the website: www.icmbio.gov.br/portal.
Brazilian Acon Plans for freshwater shes
Carla Polaz
Naonal Center Research for Conservaon of Freshwater Fishes, ICMBio - Instuto Chico Mendes
(Chico Mendes Instute)
Salminus brasiliensis (also known as "dourado" in Brazil) is an alien species in the Paraiba do Sul River basin and
a huge threat to nave 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 aer its last sighng.
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 populaons 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 populaons 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 (Wineld et al.,
2012, 2013). Unl recently it was believed that only the Derwent
Water populaon remained, along with a refuge populaon 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 detecon 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 populaon in nearby Derwent Water. Third, it is possible that
such downstream movement happened some me ago and that
the individual is the locally-spawned ospring of such colonisers.
DNA obtained from this vendace is to be sequenced in an aempt
to shed some light on this issue.
This nding of a single vendace does not, of course, indicate that
a self-sustaining populaon is present in Bassenthwaite Lake, but
it is a very pleasant surprise and gives great encouragement to
everyone involved in the restoraon of the lake and its fantasc
wildlife. Connued monitoring of the sh community will help us
to understand what has happened and will connue to inform
appropriate local conservaon acons, with perhaps also some
lessons for wider issues of sh conservaon.
References
Wineld, 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. Conservaon of the vendace (Coregonus albula), the
U.K.’s rarest freshwater sh. Advances in Limnology 63, 547-559.
Wineld, 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. Posive steps for conservaon of the vendace
(Coregonus albula), the UK’s rarest freshwater sh. Newsleer of the
IUCN SSC/WI Freshwater Fish Specialist Group 1, 14-15.
U.K.’s rarest freshwater sh ‘reappears’
Ian J. Wineld 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 Internaonal Aquarium Congress in Cape
Town, Sam Furrer of Zurich Zoo and I spoke about what zoos
and aquariums were doing with Madagascan shes. Several
instuons kept and bred a variety of species, but we didn’t know
which species or how many individuals were held in capvity. We
agreed to conduct a survey to nd out who was working with
them, and to develop an inventory as a starng point. Lile did I
know, at that me, this was the start of a mission to save a species
from exncon.
Sam sent out the survey and in a few months revealed the results.
Over 40 instuons responded to the survey, mostly in Europe,
but a few from North America too. About a dozen collecons in
Europe kept Malagasy shes and there were about 15 species in
the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) collecons. One species
stood out for me: the Mangarahara cichlid, Ptychochromis
insolitus. The survey showed that only Berlin Zoo and my
instuon, 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. Aer our discussion he agreed to
set up a separate tank for his pair and aempt 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 aecng Madagascar had made the situaon
worse. Worried that capve populaons 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 poinng out
our two males to visitors to the aquarium, saying that they
might be the last of their kind. People were horried 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. Geng sh cover in the press isn’t easy
for a zoo curator when you compete with gers and gorillas and
other charismac 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” requesng anyone with
informaon about this species to get in touch. The mainstream
media were capvated by this story and intrigued by my
descripon 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 addion to hundreds of well-wishers and a few
sarcasc responses saying exncon 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
wrien 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 logiscs. 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 Brish 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 Oce to help
fund the trip. The grant was successful, and with ZSL and Toronto
Zoo funding the remaining amount, we started to plan logiscs.
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 Soa 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.
Aer four days of logiscal
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 lile. 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 cale. This
deforestaon and burning
pracce 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 sll
contained water. There was lile ow, but the pools were deep
and there were sll 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 dicult. 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; somemes we would catch no sh, other mes
just lapia or a few gobies. Eventually we decided to head up
north along the Soa to Antsakabry to check tributaries at higher
elevaon in the hope there would be more water and fewer
lapia. Our jeeps were prey baered and the roads were
hardly what you would call ‘roads’. Finally, two weeks into the
expedion 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 cenmetres long. In the next two hours before
nighall seine neng yielded an addional three shes. We
also caught Paretroplus nourissa, P. gymnopreoperculatus, and
Pachypanchax sp. Soa. 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
Tesng water quality with an audience in Marovato and one of the beer 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 locaons 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. Ulmately, we found them
in three of the six sites, with the downstream sites too degraded
to support nave 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
aquac life, such as amphibian larvae and aquac 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 sll existed in the wild in Madagascar, but
deeply concerned with the state of their habitat. Rice farming
and its associated water abstracon, intensive shing including
the use of poisons, deforestaon 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 populaons in capvity, they will become exnct.
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 expedion 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 sll in Madagascar, or there was
a big risk we wouldn’t have a second chance. Fortunately Tim
had brought a selecon of “breather” bags with him for moving
Bedoa 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 aernoon: to avoid the hoest part of the
day. We worked in two teams covering two areas so we had a
beer 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. Soa. 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 connuous 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 selecon 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
spoed 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 doubul. We will work with others to develop a
conservaon strategy for the species, following on from what the
Durrell Wildlife Conservaon Trust are doing for Oxylapia polli in
the Nosivolo River and adapng this project for the Amboaboa
where feasible. We will also invesgate whether a translocaon is
feasible – moving sh upstream to the special reserve where they
will have greater protecon. Whether or not any Ptychochromis
insolitus ever come to ZSL London Zoo is sll undecided. If a
conservaon 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 collecng a sh trap in the Amboaboa River; Local shermen helping to catch
Ptychochromis and Paretroplus; Releasing sh in Guy’s ponds in Andapa aer a 30 hour journey; Sorng 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 iniave on Hainan
Island, China
Bosco P.L. Chan
Kadoorie Conservaon 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 latude 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
populaon and infrastructure development are pung pressures
on the river ecosystem and its biota; water is being polluted,
habitat quality deteriorang, and sh populaons overshed.
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. Sing deep inside the reserve, along Nankai River, is
an ethnic minority village called Daoyin. Due to its remoteness
and impoverished economy, Daoyin villagers tradionally rely
heavily on stream shes to supplement their diet. Things were
ne unl the 1980s, when “technological advancement” brought
electroshing, 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 exrpaon of the more sensive species,
like Hypophthalmichthys harmandi, Spinibarbus denculatus,
Bangana discognathoides and Coreoperca whiteheadi (Chan and
Chen, 2008).
Nankai River, a tributary of Nandu
River with prisne 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 communies in conservaon, KFBG and
Yinggeling decided to work with Daoyin Village in protecng their
shes, as they can easily associate shes with their daily life,
which oers a good entry point to understanding the importance
of conservaon. We started by staying in the village, conducng
eld work and interview surveys on sh diversity and ulisaon,
and sharing our views on how the local communies could
sustainably harvest their sh resources for the benet of their
future generaons. Our enthusiasm in protecng 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
secon of the river, in which shing is strictly prohibited to allow
recovery of the sh populaon. We thought that a agship species
would help us spread the message and, to our expectaon, found
that their most popular game sh is the large-sized Spinibarbus
caldwelli (locally known as junyu), which is becoming rare due
to overshing. Some taxonomists considered it conspecic with
Taiwanese S. hollandi, but see Tang et al., 2005. Interesngly, the
junyu supercially bears striking resemblance and has similar
habitat requirements (swi, clear, rocky-boomed 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. putora of the Himalayas).
We also made it very clear that the management of a “mini”
protected-areas, such as the ones being proposed in secons
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 conducng 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 conrmed the eecveness of it, with a shoaling
junyu populaon in the sh sanctuary and less eort needed to
harvest enough sh for a meal outside. Today, the lucky visitors
are treated with tens of >30cm long junyu greeng them close,
or even nipping their toes, if they are paent!
In 2012, to promote this idea to a wider community and to
further enhance the conservaon value of the sh sanctuary,
we organised a grassroots workshop about the sh sanctuary,
during which we also released some ngerlings of a locally-
exrpated species, Spinibarbus denculatus, 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 exrpated in the 1980s as the species, according to the
villagers, are parcularly suscepable 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 aended by
almost 100 people, mainly chiefs from surrounding villages and
local government ocials, and many have voted to set up their
own sh sanctuaries in their respecve villages. I can tesfy they
are serious about keeping their word, as my recent exploratory
scuba diving survey at a downstream village aracted almost
the whole village to the stream bank waing 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 distribuon 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 conducng 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
denculatus into the Daoyin sh sanctuary, Hainan Island.
Photo: Jay Wan@KFBG
Parcipants 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
Killishes on the edge
Jörg Freyhof
Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Instute for Animal Biodiversity, Germany
While killishes 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
(Cyprinodondae) accepted as valid in the Western
Palearcc. Several addional 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 Palearcc killishes,
18 (65%) have been assessed as threatened, 10 (43%) of them as Crically Endangered. This ranks killishes
just behind sturgeons as the most threatened group of Western Palearcc freshwater shes. The high threat
levels are due to their high vulnerability to alien species, especially Gambusia holbrooki, which is now almost
omnipresent in killish habitats and the fact, that many killishes 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 dierent progress levels, from long-term conservaon 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 conservaon projects.
What to do if there is no more water? Conservaon of
Aphanius sirhani, the Azraq Killish
Nashat Hamidan
Royal Society for the Conservaon of Nature, Jordan; Centre for Conservaon Ecology and Environmental
Science, Bournemouth University, UK.
The Azraq killish, 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 quanes from the phreac layer to feed the demands of
Jordan’s capital Amman, and other large cies, aer which, the
water level dramacally dropped, unl 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 restoraon started in
1994, where 8% of the marshes (based on their 1960s extent)
have been restored. During this restoraon, the Azraq killish was
maintained in the reserve and outside by capve breeding.
The bale against exncon started in 1998, when the Royal
Society for the Conservaon of Nature (RSCN), the organizaon
responsible for nature conservaon in Jordan, decided to
integrate the endemic killish conservaon programme into the
rehabilitaon project. Thus, the conservaon of killish started
with a baseline survey to invesgate the situaon of the killish
and, if it is not exnct, to determine what the future plan would
be.
Gambusia holbrooki
Research work carried out in corporaon 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 populaon was collected for special stocking
and propagang 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 populaon size
of the endemic killish, and the species was sll at the edge of
exncon.
A detailed understanding for the survival requirements of the
Azraq killish 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 idened harsh environmental condions:
water shortage and uctuaon, habitat loss, and the impact of
alien species, including compeon for food, nursery grounds,
and the direct predaon of adults, juveniles, and eggs.
Scienc evidence-based conservaon acons were planned,
brave but massive rehabilitaon eorts took place, and were
guided by the 1960s aerial photos and maps that showed the
water regime at that me. The remaining wild killish were
removed and secured in a semi-natural pond, and then most of
the wetland habitats were dried in preparaon for restoraon.
The water system was redirected to follow the old pathways aer
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 killish and no other species.
Aer this work was nished, water was pumped again into the
new habitat, and 1,250 killish were introduced on 28th February
2006. Six months later, a monitoring survey of the killish took
place, and for the rst me in a long me it was possible to obtain
a full net of the endemic Azraq killish. Also, for the rst me, the
size of the populaon exceeded those of alien sh populaons.
The killish populaon connues 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 modied ponds, but
in large numbers, and since 2006 it is the most abundant species.
Despite this success, the species remains fully conservaon
dependent, as water must be pumped into the wetland. Also,
despite the fact that the killish coexists with the alien cichlid
species, the laer have been a problem; it has not been possible
to fully eradicate them, so they sll need to be connuously
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 eort
and help of many people and organisaons: rst The Royal
Society for the Conservaon of Nature, in parcular Azraq
Wetland Reserve team; also the Limnology Department from the
University of Vienna, and especially Mr. Anton Weissenbacher,
Horst Zornig. Chester Zoo, through the coordinaon 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 contribuons. This project
also received several funds from dierent donors, including the
Ford Conservaon and Environmental Award, The Netherlands
Embassy in Amman, Jafar Aquacs, and a Ramsar Convenon
small grant. The project heroes are not forgoen, 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, eort, 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
Tilng at windmills: Conservaon 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 bale. Sadly, this may also be proving true
of the world’s longest-established conservaon eort for a non-
commercial freshwater sh species. Valencia hispanica, another
Iberian nave, connues to struggle for survival.
Restricted to a small poron 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 Convenon (a binding internaonal legal
instrument in the eld of nature conservaon, which covers most
of the natural heritage of the European connent and extends to
some States of Africa) as a highly endangered species since 1979.
It was also designated a priority for conservaon in Annexes II
and IV of the European Union Habitats Direcve 92/43/EEC. In
1996 it was assessed as Endangered by the IUCN, but reclassied
as Crically Endangered in 2005 due to an apparent populaon
decline in excess of 80% since the mid-1990s (Crivelli, 2006).
The samaruc is also considered In Danger Of Exncon 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
protecon of animals. An extensive regional programme of capve
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 legislave 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 populaons two are thought to have been
released by aquarists, and one is in a drasc state while the other
inhabits a ny, fragile lagoon. The remaining seven have all been
heavily augmented or created arcially using capve-raised sh,
with several aempts at the laer having also been abandoned.
Thousands of individuals connue to be released each year, but
there is lile sign of improvement at most localies (BDBCV,
2013). The unfortunate implicaon is that if habitat quality cannot
be further improved this jewel of Valencia will soon join ‘The
Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha’ and other naonal treasures
in the ranks of Spanish legend.
References
BDBCV - Banco de Datos Biodiversidad Comunidad Valenciana: hp://
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 Ciprinodóndos 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 populaons.
Inset: Valencia hispanica. Photos: Ma Ford
NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 29
A Crically Endangered freshwater sh species of North
Africa likely to be exnct in the wild
Mahmoud Bacha1, Chabane Benamirouche and Jörg Freyhof2
1 Université du Lioral Côte d’Opale, France; 2 Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz
Instute 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 Crically 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
populaon (near Mazzer) remained. When the species was
described in 2006 (Blanco et al., 2006), it was already menoned
that “The presence of introduced North American Gambusia sp.
poses a serious threat, with current densies of Gambusia to
Aphanius being more than 100 to one. Excessive groundwater
withdrawal for agricultural purposes, the drying of wetlands,
and water polluon 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 capve breeding programme is
underway“. Such capve populaons exist in several European
countries. In 2013, the German Killish Associaon (DKG) in
collaboraon 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 nilocus) could be found. There was
no trace of the Aphanius. Naturally, a negave record is dicult
to make and there might be sll the chance to re-discover the
species in the wild. But it is at least quite likely, that the species is
now exnct in the wild.
Based on the actual results, we should treat the capve stock in a
way as if the wild populaon is gone. The next queson is, could
the Aphanius be re-introduced to the wild? As its exncon in
the wild was caused by the impact of alien species, these must be
removed from future re-introducon sites. This might be a real
challenge, even in a dry area as the Algerian Sahara.
This is the third exnct freshwater sh species in the Maghreb
aer the exncon of Salmo pallaryi from its only lacustrine
habitat in Morocco, and Luciobarbus annorii, 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 exncon: Aphanius apodus, Barbus reinii,
Ptercapoeta maroccana and Salaria atlanca. These have either
not been assessed yet, or have been assessed as Data Decient
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 sll 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 conservaon 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 situaon 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 extracon 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 sll exist at this one site, but was not found during recent
eld work and might also already have vanished.
Two capve populaons 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 possibilies to reintroduce it into nature are sll
unexplored. As all, but one, of the natural habitats have dried
out, alternave habitats need to be found in the area avoiding
a situaon of the Jordanian killish Aphanius sirhani, which now
only exist in arcial 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 exnct in the wild
Hamid Reza Esmaeili1 and Jörg Freyhof2
1 Department of Biology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran; 2Zoological Research Museum Alexander
Koenig, Leibniz Instute for Animal Biodiversity, Germany
Conservaon acon for the Aci Göl toothcarp,
Aphanius transgrediens
Baran Yoğurtçoğlu and Güler Ekmekci
Hydrobiology Secon, Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Haceepe University, Turkey
There is a diverse and rich fauna of killishes in Anatolia, Turkey
and several species suer a high risk of exncon in the near
future. Aer lisng the Aci Göl toothcarp as one of the most
threatened species of the world by Baillie and Butcher (2012),
some conservaon acon 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 exncon can be saved
with relavely lile eorts, 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 addion to
industrial acvies, a dense populaon of alien Gambusia
holbrooki is a serious threat to A. transgrediens. Gambusia preys
on fry of Aphanius and much outnumbers the nave killish 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 conservaon
project including in-situ and ex-situ breeding programmes and
environmental educaon to the local community. The project
has been nancially supported by the Ruord Small Grants
Organizaon for 12 months. Aer six months, the most important
outcomes of the project have been completed.
Conservaon acons include an inial assessment of the
complete spring eld. For this purpose; a) some physical-chemical
properes of water have been measured on a monthly basis; b)
classicaon of the springs according to their origins was carried
out by isotope analysis; and c) dominant vegetaon and plankton
communies 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 relave
abundance of individuals of Aphanius and Gambusia in each
spring, etc.
Since we had planned to establish viable stocks of Aphanius
transgredins in its nave habitat, we decided to conduct a
pilot study by transporng 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 communies
“proud of their endemic treasure”. Our rst environmental
educaon aempt was organized for elementary schools of
Başmakçı, which is the closest village to our study area. We made
a presentaon about who we are, what we are doing, why the
biodiversity and species conservaon are important and what
kind of sh species we want to protect or remove (i.e. invasive
species).
To accomplish a long-lasng conservaon in the future, more
detailed assessments, including conservaons genecs and
experimental approaches and building more Gambusia-free
ponds are urgently needed. For these acons, we are currently
searching for addional 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 gersh populaon learns to
acvely predate on swallows on the wing
Gordon O’Brien1, Francois Jacobs1, Steven Evans2 and Nico Smit2
1Instute 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 migrang 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 predang acvely on birds exist, and no conrmed
accounts of sh acvely predang on birds while in ight have
been documented, unl now.
In the Schroda man-made Lake in the Mapungupwe Naonal
Park in South Africa (22°11'32.54"S and 29°25'59.93"E), the local
gersh (Hydrocynus viatus) populaon, established in 2003,
has adapted a unique ability to acvely prey on low ying barn
swallows (Hirundo rusca) 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 idenfy unusual sources of
food and learn to ulise these resources. The migraon of the
barn swallow populaon coincides with the spawning period of
the local gersh populaon and this might be advantageous to
the gersh, but the extent of their dependence on the migrang
swallow populaon is unknown (O’Brien et al., in press). This
ecologically important populaon of gersh sll occurs in an
ecosystem that may have been considered to be unsuitable
without this unique adaptaon (O’Brien et al., in press).
This discovery was made in 2011 by sciensts who were
monitoring the behavioural ecology of the gersh populaon in
Schroda Lake as a part of a greater scienc study (O’Brien et al.,
2012). During a summer survey to Schroda Lake in 2011, some
gersh that were tagged and tracked displayed uncharacterisc
increases in acvity 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 gersh populaon in
the lake. This uncharacterisc behaviour alerted the sciensts to
other gersh 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 locaon, this was not considered
to be usual. Francois then realised that the sh were aacking
swallows that were feeding and/or drinking while in ight just
above the surface of the lake. The swallows seemed to be forced
Hydrocynus viatus
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 aacks were observed by gersh. Some
of these aacks were documented using moon picture video
camera (Fouché et al., 2008). Two predaon strategies were
displayed by the gersh populaon 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 iniated from deep water
that were not visible. The surface pursuit strategies were less
successful than direct aerial strikes iniated from deeper areas.
This discovery suggests that even the tranquil surfaces of lakes
in Africa that provide migrang swallows with water during
migraons are unsafe, and that the gersh populaon in
Schroda Lake may sll exist only because of the presence of a
food source in the ecosystem which has, unl recently, never
been documented.
References
Fouché, P.S.O., Angliss, M.K. and Gagiano, C. 2008. A baseline assessment
of the aquac ecology and limology of Schroda manmade lake (Limpopo
Province) with specic reference to the gersh populaon (Hydrocynus
viatus). Report by Enviro-Soluon Systems for Venea Conservaon
Society, De Beers Venea Mine.
O’Brien, G.C., Jacobs, F., Evans, S.W. and Smit, N.J. In Press. First
observaon of Africa gersh (Hydrocynus viatus) predang on Barn
Swallows (Hirundo rusca) in ight. Journal of Fish Biology 84, 263–266
O’Brien, G.C., Buln, J.B., Husted, A. and Smit N.J. 2012. A. Comparave
behavioural assessment of an established and new Tigersh (Hydrocynus
viatus) populaon in two arcial impoundments in the Limpopo
catchment, southern Africa. African Journal of Aquac Sciences 37(3),
1-8.
A schemac of the avivorous behavioural strategies
adopted by Hydrocynus viatus in the Schroda Dam
man-made lake.
OPINION
Tackling giants: geng the most out of working
groups for freshwater sh conservaon
Harmony C. Patricio1 and Steph Januchowski-Hartley2
1 Society for Conservaon Biology – Freshwater Working Group, and FISHBIO; 2 Society for
Conservaon 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” “commiees”, “consorums”, “coalions”, 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 proporon of these groups are truly successful in
achieving their stated goals. How many groups are at least acve
to a degree? Is the proporon fairly low?
With all these dierent enes, our limited me, and our desire
to aect change, how then can we be the most producve? Many
of us recognize the importance of uning people from dierent
regions or disciplines or sectors to address a common goal. Yet,
we repeatedly see progress stalling, a few acve 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 conservaon realm? Could it be because our passion leads
us to say “yes” to requests to parcipate in groups when we
realiscally may not have the me to contribute much?
How then can we be most producve given our limited me?
Asking this queson isn’t easy, but it is essenal if we want to
achieve the goal of “Saving Freshwater Fishes and Habitats”.
We propose that freshwater sh specialists represenng
various groups and commiees can be much more eecve by
communicang amongst groups with the goal of idenfying three
priority issues for any given year. Each group may have dierent
tools to oer that will enable measurable progress on these
priority issues. Each group can bite o a piece of the problem that
they are best posioned to tackle. Many groups do communicate
and collaborate, but to our knowledge there is no central clearing-
house where informaon on acvies and priories of various
groups is easily accessible.
We propose development of an umbrella forum to increase our
producvity, enable informaon sharing, and reach the goal of
establishing three priority issues through collecve decision.
Many of us use RSS feeds to receive consolidated updates. Reddit
has become one of the most popular websites for informaon
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 relave importance. The basic funconality
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 communicaon amongst freshwater
groups and to priorize shared priories? Considering the
myriad enes operang in the freshwater realm, it is essenal
for complementary groups to engage one another to idenfy
opportunies to align eorts both for collaboraon and to take
posions on crical issues.
The emerging applicaon of Social Network Analysis to
conservaon also oers a set of tools that can increase the
eecveness of collaboraons. For example, Mills et al. (2014)
state, “Invesng in areas that are highly connected both
ecologically and through social networks could lead to potenally
more ecient deployment of resources through more eecve
implementaon.” While it might not always be feasible to use
formal assessments to idenfy the most procient methods for
collaboraon; thinking along these lines can enable idencaon
of tools that guide us towards more producve decision-making
and resource allocaon.
How else can we build collaboraons that are producve in
achieving conservaon outcomes? Over the past few years we,
the authors, have been engaged in the Society for Conservaon
Biology (SCB) and its Freshwater Working Group. The SCB is very
producve in many respects, and several key policies inuencing
conservaon have come from its members. Unfortunately, we have
seen an obvious lack of involvement from freshwater sciensts 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 Conservaon Biology. We
have started asking ourselves, where are the freshwater sciensts
in the SCB? Do many people working on freshwater consider their
eorts to be outside the realm of conservaon biology?
We believe the Society for Conservaon Biology is a plaorm that
has not been eecvely exploited by freshwater sciensts. The
Society provides channels for pursuing funding to support core
eorts, and access to decision makers at a high level. Perhaps
many freshwater sh specialists do not think of themselves as
conservaon biologists, while alternavely many conservaon
biologists may not be aware of the vital role their work can
play in conservaon of freshwater biodiversity. In actuality,
most organisms of interest to conservaon biologists, even the
terrestrial, depend on healthy aquac ecosystems nearly as much
as the sh living in the water itself.
If we wish to contribute producvely to saving freshwater shes
and habitats, we must step outside of the comfort zone. It’s a lile
pond for freshwater sciensts, so let’s make ripples. It will be the
combined force of us each holding down one rope on a singular
crical 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 acvies of a group you are already part of. Engage players
from sectors that have an economic interest in fresh water
resources. Take steps to idenfy where you can be most eecve
so you don’t get burned out. Share your knowledge with those
in other elds who are doing something big for conservaon,
and show them how important freshwater biodiversity is. We
may not have furry and cuddly criers, 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
conservaon 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 acon: Towards using social network analysis
in systemac conservaon planning. Biological Conservaon 169:
6-13.
Resource
Society for Conservaon Biology – Freshwater Working Group:
hp://www.conbio.org/groups/working-groups/freshwater
NOTICEBOARD
36 NOTICEBOARD NOTICEBOARD 37
We want to invite you to take part in World Fish Migraon Day 2014 on the 24th May. This internaonal event calls
aenon to the need to safeguard free owing rivers and to restore the connecons in rivers for migratory sh.
WHY DO WE CARE?
Migratory sh (like salmon, trout, shad, lamprey, giant caish, 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 dicult for sh to reach
their spawning grounds, and can conceivably cause species exncon. Millions of people around the world rely on these
shes as their primary source of protein and for their livelihoods. Water managers and conservaonists are striving to protect
and improve sh migraon routes between and within rivers, deltas and the oceans. These ‘sh highways’ are vital for their
survival.
World Fish Migraon 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 communies around river basins are
essenal aspects of sh passage and river restoraon. On this day, we will connect celebraons 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 locaons will be connected worldwide. We are looking for organizaons that want to join this inspiring
iniave. There is already an excing array of events planned, varying from a sh way tour in the Kruger Naonal Park (South
Africa) to walks along the River Kuma (Japan) to observe the dam removal project to talks, seminars and kids’ acvies
planned in many countries around the world.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ORGANIZE AN EVENT?
Parcipang organizaons will organize their own event (e.g. acvity sessions, workshops or talks) and outreach
communicaon, under the umbrella of the World Fish Migraon Day. Educaonal 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 Internaonal Freshwater Fish Specialist Group, will take care of the central coordinaon, internaonal 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 oces of water authority ‘Amstel, Gooi and Vecht’ (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) will serve as the headquarters of
WFMD
For more informaon
Web: www.worldshmigraonday.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WorldFishMigraonDay
Twier: twier.com/WFMD2014
Instagram: instagram.com/shmigraonday
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
Internaonal conference on the biology, conservaon and management of
lamprey.
Naonal 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 enigmac species. There will be oponal
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 presenng the keynote
addresses.
There has been interest from across the globe with papers submied from 14 dierent countries
to date with numerous dierent 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
prole of this oen forgoen 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.
Registraon 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 conservaon project with a global
audience? Are you doing fascinang research or organising an excing event? Well, the FFSG
Newsleer could be the perfect way to tell your story!
The deadline for subming material for the next issue is 9th May 2014.
If you have any quesons or if you want to submit material, please email info@iucnsg.org
The Freshwater Fish Specialist Group is
generously supported by Chester Zoo, UK.
www.chesterzoo.org