With the imported ‘outsider’ fishes ruling the roost in the rivers, many local species in South Africa are facing extinction.
Since they were imported in South Africa back in the 18th century, fishes like trout, bass and carp have grown steadily in numbers and resulted in a booming fishing industry and generating a handsome $2.6 billion to the South African economy.
While these fishes are very popular with the anglers, their rapid growth has been a stark contrast to the dwindling population of the local species. The Bot river in the Cape Floristic Region has been housing a few local species and Dean Impson, an aquatic scientist at Cape Nature Conservation, could not predict a bright future for the fishes.
He said
It’s a sad river at the moment. These are sad rivers from an ecological point of view because they are like little deserts, the alien fish are in them and they’ve eliminated most, if not all, of the indigenous fish.
A new plan was mooted to get rid of the ever-growing predator fishes but that might mark the beginning of a row between the fishermen and the environmentalists. Conservationists are also against using natural poison to rid the rivers of the ‘alien’ fishes fearing it might create more problems for the already endangered local fishes.
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