| Scientists, farmers team up to save one of SA's most threatened fish | |
| By Jan Cronje |
Source: fin24 |
4/1/2022 |
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Credit: Jeremy |
Decades ago, before large numbers of alien predatory fish were introduced to South African waters, an unusual event would occur in some of the rivers of the Western Cape.
As spring broke after good winter rains, rivers in the Olifants/Doring river basin would turn "black" as waves of migrating sandfish headed upstream to spawn. |
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A yellow/greenish fish with a pronounced overbite that can grow to about 60cm, the Clanwilliam sandfish is one of South Africa's most threatened migratory freshwater fish.
Having disappeared from the Olifants River where it was formerly abundant, it survives only in the Doring River and some of its tributaries.
Here it battles black bass and bluegill – fish introduced from the US in the late 1920s for sport fishing. And it's a battle the sandfish appears to be losing. |
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