The wels catfish threatens Spains river ecosystems 
By Esther Sánchez SP Source: elpais 5/20/2024
Esther Sánchez
Credit: PACO PUENTES
“The fish is not to blame; those responsible are the people who have brought it here,” says fisherman José Manuel García while examining a huge wels catfish measuring 1.6 meters and weighing 25 kilos that he has just caught in the Iznájar reservoir in the Guadalquivir basin in southern Spain, where the species first appeared in 2011.
 

“There are bigger ones,” he says before killing it, as required by law as it is an invasive exotic species. The wels catfish — the largest freshwater fish in Europe, which can reach a length of 2.5 meters and weigh over 120 kilos — has not stopped multiplying and wreaking environmental havoc since the German biologist Roland Lorkowsky introduced 32 fry from the Danube into the Segre river, in the Ebro basin, in 1974.

 
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