The Vasco da Gama Aquarium will release about 900 endangered freshwater fish this month to repopulate rivers and streams and then monitor their population in the wild.
According to information released this Friday by the Portuguese Navy, the fish will be released next Tuesday in the municipality of Grandola and March 23 in the municipality of Mafra.
The initiative, a partnership between the Aquarium and MARE-ISPA (Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences ISPA – University Institute) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, is part of the Ex Situ Conservation of River Organisms project, which aims to reproduce and maintain native freshwater fish species of the Portuguese fauna, ” endangered” to repopulate the rivers of their origin.
The Navy said in a statement that rivers would then be visited and fish populations monitored by MARE-ISPA researchers.
“This is a way to protect species that are considered endangered due to declining populations in the wild due to several factors: pollutant emissions, the onset of increasingly long and dry summers, the destruction of vegetation on the banks and the spread of invasive plants. and animal species,” the statement emphasizes.
On Tuesday, 600 Portuguese gods (Iberochondrostoma lusitanicum) born in the Aquarium and offspring of individuals caught in the same stream will be released into the Grandola stream.
The statement highlights that it is a species considered endangered, which exists only in Portugal, in the watersheds of the Tagus and Sado rivers, as well as in small streams of the western region and the region between Sado and Mira.
On the 23rd, 300 western redheads (Achondrostoma occidentale), also born in the Aquarium and descended from individuals caught in the same river, were released into the Safaruho River, Mafra.
It is also a critically endangered species that exists only in Portugal and only in three rivers: Safarujo, Alcabrichel and Sisandro.
The Portuguese Navy said in a statement that the Vasco da Gama Aquarium has already held two more of its kind this month, one on Thursday with the release of 35 Portuguese gods (Iberochondrostoma lusitanicum), two southern squirrels (Squalius pyrenaicus) and two green palms (Cobitis paludica). ) in the Jamor River, from where they were rescued in the summer due to drought.
This Friday, 60 individuals of the Saramugo (Aaecypris hispanica), a species considered endangered and found only in the Iberian Peninsula, in the Guadiana basin, were released into the wild this Friday in Mertola.
The Vasco da Gama Aquarium, one of the oldest public aquariums in the world, was opened on May 20, 1898 and transferred in 1901 to the Portuguese Navy.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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