In Europe there was a conservation program started for Aphanius apodus, in
cooperation with an University. haven4t heard of it for years but without
doubt, there are many more A. apodus outside this "program" in tanks of
private enthusiast.
The french expert Jean Huber together with Professor Contreras from Mexico
had set up plans for recollecting (infact re-doscovering!) of Millerichthys
robustus in Mexico. In that area other vanished species could have been
rediscovered. Everything was organised and financed private, the mexican
authorities granted to collect 5 specimen per collector to set up a breeding
program. I was one of the candidates to go over but with 5 fish it is hard
to establish a breeding stock. OK; have already started with just a pair but
that wasn4t planned. The mexican project is dead now as nobody will
accept such a minimum of stock. On the other hand there are dozens of
species close to extinction in Mexico, the reasons are the same as
everywhere in the world - agriculture, water extraction, and pollution, but
the government rather lets them get extinct rather than having them backed
up in aquariums. Very similar for many other countries. For the USA I have
experienced that environmental agencies are way more open to captive
breeding programs. But haven4t received evidence there is any running at
all.
Steffen
Am 11.05.2006 9:26 Uhr schrieb "Michael Gaines" unter
<michaelandclarine-in-sbcglobal.net>:
> While I perhaps took their comments out of context, there have been posts in
> the whole sturgeon discussion that HAVE referred to goodeids, and other non US
> fish.
> I would however agree with everything else. Most fishes from the US are
> best left in the hands of the experts in most cases, though looking to the
> experience of hobbyists would benefit many of the government agencies involved
> greatly.
> Michael
>
> Peter Unmack <peter.lists at> wrote:
> On Wed, 10 May 2006, Michael Gaines wrote:
>
>> Tell that to the various Victorian cichlids and goodeids that exist
>> because of hobbyists.
>
> Michael, I think you are taking Mike's and Chris' comments slightly out of
> context (although it perhaps wasn't exactly clear). No one is saying that
> hobbyists can't contribute to fish conservation. But, if you had some
> locally threatened minnow in your region that you wanted to breed and
> reintroduce to help the local population then you would be more likely to
> hurt the population than help it. That type of operation is best left to
> the organisations that you listed below. Obviously, if a fish is extinct
> in the wild then it's only hope for continued survival is captive
> maintenance by aquariums and hobbyists and I think you would find that
> everyone fully supports that.
>
>> Who are these people who are more qualified? Except for a few zoos,
>> Fish Ark Mexico, and CFI, most of those programs are collossal failures,
>> and the ones which are not do not have the resources for every
>> endangered species.
>>
>> IMHO, if it's legal to collect and distribute them, the only ethical
>> mandate is that you breed and distribute them to others who will do the
>> same.
>
> However, many/some fishes lack the protection that they should have due to
> political rather than biological reasons. If someone was going to remove
> some of these, breed them, and document how they did it then I could see
> some justification for it, but few people do this. Thus, for the most
> part, if a fish is under threat for some reason, they are probably better
> left alone. Sure, habitat degradation is typically the major cause for
> population decline, but taking out individuals for no good reason doesn't
> help them any. And I will qualify that by limiting these comments to the
> USA. I think once you get into Mexico and other places with few resources
> devoted to conservation then the situation changes somewhat since there
> is essentially nothing the government will do to help the species survive
> in the wild.
>
> Cheers
> Peter Unmack
> Provo River, Utah
>
> / help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
> / http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml
> /-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
> / Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
> / reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
> / visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
> / consistent with the guidelines as per
> / http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
> / help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
> / http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml