Freshwater fish in crisis, a Blue Planet perspective

Abstract

The challenges of conserving freshwater fish species are daunting. Aquatic ecosystems are poorly understood, relatively unmanageable, shared by multiple users and highly vulnerable to human interventions. The ‘cocktail of threats’ to freshwater fish includes, dams, pollution, interbasin transfers, alien introductions, all mainly due to a burgeoning global human population. Worldwide, freshwater fish species (which make up 25% of the world's vertebrates whilst occurring in only 0.01% of the Blue Planet's water) are being threatened. High extinction rates are forecast and yet even in educated circles there is a “So what?”; attitude to this crisis. In this paper we discuss what is happening to the freshwater fish faunas of the globe and why, but more importantly what should be done and how. There are several options including a cyberspace route. For surely it is time for the global village to focus on fresh water‐the reason our planet is habitable.

Key words:

• Freshwater fish
• Global changes
• Conservation
• Extinction
• Environmental education
• World Wide Web