SAVING FRESHWATER FISHES AND HABITATS Newsletter of the Freshwater Fish Specialist Group Issue 1 • • March 2013 In this issue Introducing FFSG Regions: Southwest Asia Iraqi Endemic Cave Fishes Typhlogarra wid- dowsoni and Caecocypris basimi From Sea to Source – An International Move- Deadline for submitting material for the first edition of 2013 ment for the Restoration of Fish Migratory The deadline for submittingis 18th January material 2013 for the next issue is the Highways 6th May 2013 Hot springs – Biodiversity hotspots From the Chair of the Freshwater Fish Specialist Group Professor Gordon McGregor Reid Impressum I have long believed that freshwater life is emotionally ‘cosmic’, as I am sure all of our FFSG UPDATE readers do. One does not enter the arena of freshwater fish conservation without a high 4 FFSG Programme Officer Temporary Personnel Change degree of emotional engagement. However, I was struck by a recent newspaper article in 5 FFSG Annual meeting 2014 Editor-in-Chief the Sunday Times speculating on the possibilities that freshwater life is literally cosmic; and 6 Introducing FFSG Regions: Southwest Asia Gordon McGregor that “fish-like” creatures might be found on Europa, one of Jupiter’s four main moons. Reid At the February, 2013, meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD Science in Boston (http://www.aaas.org/meetings/2013/) Robert Pappalardo (a space 12 Iraqi Endemic Cave Fish on the Very Edge Typhlogarra scientist at NASA) reported on a vast ocean on Europa, a super-chilly -162ºC at the widdowsoni and Caecocypris basimi Managing Editor surface. This seems to have all the necessary conditions for life - at least in its great depths, away from the poles and closer to the moon’s hot magnetic core. While Pappalardo discusses 14 Positive Steps for Conservation of the Vendace (Core- Katalin Csatadi gonus albula), the U.K.’s Rarest Freshwater Fish the prospects for algae-like micro-organisms, Richard Greenberg, a professor of planetary 16 From Sea to Source. International Guidance for the Res- sciences at Arizona University has calculated potentially life-supporting levels of oxygen in the depth of this ocean and is quoted as supposing that it could be home to some 3 million toration of Fish Migration Highways Design tons of “fish-like” creatures! So, who knows, in the eons to come maybe we will eventually A European Hotspot Biodiversity – from CR to Extinct 19 Katalin Csatadi establish an interplanetary branch of the FFSG – but hopefully before the deep-sea an- in the Wild gling clubs get there! In the meantime, we will need to remain focused in this issue on Planet 21 Freshwater Fish Assessments Planned for Peru Earth and the ever-present conservation challenges that we find there, especially in environ- mentally extreme or variable habitats such as hot springs, estuaries, caves and arid deserts. OPINION As ever, I am grateful to our membership for contributing these fascinating and pertinent 22 ‘After the Future’ Correspondance articles from all around the world. Please keep them coming! In conclusion, I should men- tion that Kati will be off on maternity leave from the 14th March and, in the interim, Suzanne Turnock will provide office cover based at Chester Zoo. We wish Kati well and also warmly welcome Suzanne to this new, temporary role. Click here to join us on Facebook for news on Image on front page: Gordon freshwater fish conservation! Nymphaea lotus thermalis © Jörg Freyhof Become a member of the Freshwater Fish Specialist Group! You can now sign up online by clicking on this link. 2 3 FFSG Update FFSG Programme Officer Temporary Personnel FFSG Annual meeting 2014 Change The next FFSG Annual Symposium has been preliminarily scheduled for the 11-14 April 2014. Dr Katalin Csatadi, Programme Officer of FFSG will The meeting will be held in Mexico and FFSG’s Regional Chair for Meso-America, Professor start her six months long maternity leave in the middle Topilitzin Contreras MacBeath took on the duties of the main organizer. Those who know Topis of March. She and her herpetologist husband are ex- also know that this will be an un-missable FFSG meeting so please save the date and make sure pecting their first baby for the end of March. Miss Su- you attend our next symposium! zanne Turnock was recruited for the duration of the maternity leave as interim Programme Officer. Her The preliminary programme and the invited speakers will be announced throughout this year. biography is below and she can be contacted on the [email protected] address. Please contact her with any FFSG related issues in the next six months. Miss Suzanne Turnock Suzanne studied for a B.Sc. in Wildlife Conservation at Liverpool John Moores University, and went on to obtain an M.Sc. in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University. Follow- ing university, Suzanne built up her experience by working with various conservation organisations on a voluntary basis, includ- ing the Sumatran Orangutan Society, the Great Apes Film Ini- tiative and Wirral Environmental Network. During her volun- teer work, Suzanne gained valuable experience, particularly in fundraising, publicity and event management. After working as a Primatologist for Operation Wallacea in Honduras for the 2010 field season, Suzanne joined Chester Zoo as Research Assistant. Working as Research Assistant for the past two and a half years, she has worked on a range of projects with a variety of species, from giant otters to jaguars to Humboldt penguins to Chilean pudus! Her work has not only focused on carrying out scientific research but she has also played a key part in revamping the zoo’s research review processes, writing the science webpages and designing the annual review reporting on the scientific activities at Chester Zoo. Suzanne is now looking forward to bringing the skills and knowledge she has developed in her previous positions to the role of Programme Officer and is very excited to be covering Kati’s maternity leave over the next six months. 4 5 Introducing FFSG Regions Southwest Asia and Oriental Realms. A brief look at generally agreed-upon There is no the palaeogeographic history of SW definition of South-West Asia, also Asia will allow us to better under- known as the “Middle East”. stand the composition of its present- For the purpose of the day freshwater fish fauna. From FFSG, SW Asia includes the Precambrian to the Palaeogene, the following states the Afro-Arabian continental block (in alphabetical order): formed a continuous plate. Up to the Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lower Miocene, the Tethys Sea separated Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Africa and Arabia from Europe and Asia. Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Following the collision of the Arabian Plate Saudi Arabia, United Arab with Eurasia during the Middle Miocene (ca 15 million years ago) Emirates, Syria, Turkey and and the subsequent formation of the Middle Eastern land bridge, the region was colonised by Yemen. a mixture of fish species originating from the three continents. Many new species evolved in the transition area. Semi-arid to arid conditions prevail since the formation of the Afro-Arabian South-West Asia lies at the desert belt during the Upper Miocene and the land bridge became a faunal ‘filter’. This allowed junction of Europe, Asia and some species to migrate among the three biogeographic realms, but formed an effective barrier Africa. On a global scale, it is for others. The Tertiary faulting between Africa and Arabia resulted in the formation of the Red the only transition zone be- Sea rift, finally separating the Arabian Peninsula from Africa. tween three major biogeographic units: the Palaearctic, Afrotropical 6 7 The Tigris-Euphrates, which drains through the Shatt al-Arab into the Persian Gulf, is the Region’s Israel, which is geographically part of the region is not a member of IUCN’s Regional Office for largest river system. Other freshwater ecosystems include rivers of all sizes, wadis (riverbeds with Western Asia, but joined the Office for Western Europe instead. seasonal, intermittent stream flow), natural and artificial wetlands. Typical features of the region are endorheic drainage basins. These are closed systems that do not drain to the ocean through A first attempt to bring together freshwater fish taxonomists and conservationists from through- rivers or via diffusion underground. out the region was made during the Middle Eastern Biodiversity Congress held in 2008 in Aqaba, Jordan. Freshwater ichthyologists met at a symposium on inland water fishes and discussed the Despite a general scarcity of freshwater in many parts of the region, more than 300 indigenous following issues: species of freshwater fishes of Palaearctic, Afrotropical and Oriental origin are known to occur in SW Asia. The number is substantially higher, if species of marine origin which occasionally or • Opportunities for the establishment of a regional Middle Eastern freshwater fish specialist regularly enter inland waters are included. With increasing aridity since the upper Miocene, frag- group, supporting the IUCN-SSC group on freshwater fishes; mentation of inland water bodies resulted in the isolation of fish populations. This engendered • Taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny of Middle Eastern freshwater fishes: what do we speciation processes and a high degree of endemism at the population, species and genus levels. know, what are the knowledge gaps? Freshwater fish families occurring in the region include: Cyprinidae (with by far largest number