Forgotten freshwater fish need to be brought back from the brink

A third of freshwater fish species are threatened by extinction and, 18, out of 80 species declared extinct, died out last year, according to a startling report on the state of the World’s Forgotten Fishes by 16 conservation organisations, released on Tuesday.

The decrease in freshwater biodiversity is happening twice as fast as that of oceans or forests, even though the planet’s rivers, lakes and wetlands provide food for more than 200 million people and jobs for about 60 million.

“Nowhere is the world’s nature crisis more acute than in our rivers, lakes and wetlands, and the clearest indicator of the damage we are doing is the rapid decline in freshwater fish populations. They are the aquatic version of the canary in the coal mine, and we must heed the warning,” says Stuart Orr, the global head of freshwater for the World Wide Fund for Nature.

In SA, water extraction and pollution are strangling major rivers, more than half of which are in a bad state, according to the Atlas of Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas in SA.

WWF-SA media manager Andrea Weiss says: “Most of the Western Cape’s rivers have been transformed by human-linked threats like climate change, invasive species and habitat degradation, but there are still places where freshwater life thrives.”

Globally, more than half the fish species are freshwater — 18,075 identified to date — and they account for about a quarter of all vertebrate species, the report notes.

More species live in freshwater than all the oceans, though rivers make up about 1% of the earth’s surface compared to 71% being oceans and seas.

Nowhere is the world’s nature crisis more acute than in our rivers, lakes and wetlands, and the clearest indicator of the damage we are doing is the rapid decline in freshwater fish populations.

In Africa, Asia and South America, freshwater fisheries are the key protein source. The rivers and lakes need freshwater fish to thrive and people need rivers to survive.

Recreational fishing and aquarium fishes are both global industries, generating more than $100bn (R1.47-trillion) and $30bn (R441bn) respectively.

“Despite their importance to local communities and indigenous people across the globe, freshwater fish are invariably forgotten and not factored into development decisions about hydropower dams, water use or building on floodplains.

“Freshwater fish matter to the health of people and the freshwater ecosystems that all people and all life on land depend on. It’s time we remembered that,” says Orr.

But until now, freshwater fishes are “undervalued and overlooked”, the report warns.

Thousands of species are threatened and 76% of migratory fish have disappeared since 1970, while 94% of mega fish are no longer alive.

The major threats facing freshwater ecosystems and fish highlighted by the report are:

• Habitat destruction
• Hydropower dams on free-flowing rivers
• Taking out too much water for irrigation
• Pollution including from domestic (particularly plastic), agricultural and chemical
• Overfishing and destructive fishing practices
• Invasive non-native species
• Climate change impacts
• Unsustainable sand mining
• Wildlife crime

The threat to freshwater ecosystems and fish species is a clear and present danger. No test is needed to prove this, but it can be reversed.

On the Amur River in Russia, for example, the country’s largest salmon run crashed in 2019 and no chum salmon were found in the spawning ground over summer.

The critically endangered European eel is a heavily trafficked animal and sturgeons are among the most threatened species because of illegal caviar poaching.

In India, the construction of the Farakka Barrage caused the hilsa fishery yield on the Ganges River to plummet from 19 tons a year to under one ton.

But the downward spiral of freshwater species can be turned around and the solutions are known to conservationists, who are appealing to countries to make a firm commitment to freshwater biodiversity this year at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, China, in May.

“They must pay just as much attention to protecting and restoring our freshwater life support systems as the world’s forests and oceans,” the authors of the report say.

Orr says: “Securing a new deal for the world’s freshwater ecosystems will bring life back to our dying rivers, lakes and wetlands.

“It will bring freshwater fish species back from the brink too — securing food and jobs for hundreds of millions, safeguarding cultural icons, boosting biodiversity and enhancing the health of the freshwater ecosystems that underpin our wellbeing and prosperity.”

The WWF has taken the lead in drawing up a scientific Emergency Recovery Plan for freshwater biodiversity which has six pillars and is championed by the 15 other organisations and alliances who compiled the report.

They are the Alliance for Freshwater Life, Alliance for Inland Fisheries, Conservation International, Fisheries Conservation Foundation, Freshwaters Illustrated, Global Wildlife Conservation, InFish, IUCN, IUCN SSC FFSG, Mahseer Trust, Shoal, Synchronicity Earth, The Nature Conservancy, World Fish Migration Foundation, WWF and Zoological Society of London.

Orr says: “What we need now is to recognise the value of freshwater fish and fisheries, and for governments to commit to new targets and solutions implementation, as well as prioritising which freshwater ecosystems need protection and restoration.

“We also need to see partnerships and innovation through collective action involving governments, businesses, investors, civil society and communities.”

The threat to freshwater ecosystems and fish species is a clear and present danger. No test is needed to prove this, but it can be reversed.

“We can and must act now,” says Dr Jon Hutton, WWF executive director for Global Conservation Impact says: “Freshwater fishes, in all their dazzling diversity, have been forgotten for too long.”