Re: Species Conseravation

[IDMiamiBob@aol.com]

Okay guys, let me give you an example of a fish that COULD now be re-
introduced to its native habitat if only we had some.

Lake Erie was once populated by 2 varieties of walleye, identified by local
fishermen as yellow pike and blue pike.  Due to overfishing and pollution,
yellows declined significantly and blues became extinct.  Regulations, both
fishery and environmental, by both the US and Canada, have brought the lake's
water quality back up, and yellow pike have recovered significantly.  Blue
Pike could recover also, if only we had some to introduce.

Of course there are blues in a system of lakes in western Quebec where some
fishermen I know go on a regular basis.  But the icthyological "experts" in
both NY and Quebec seem to have trouble believing that some of the blues may
have fallen over Niagara Falls, and established breeding colonies in Lake
Ontario, which further migrated down the St Lawrence and up the Kippewa River.
I finally gave up.  They will not accept that these fish are blue pike, simply
because they cannot prove that their ancestry came from Lake Erie.  If someone
had kept some Lake Erie blues in a private pond, we would now have an
introduction population to work with that the government and the
"intelligensia" would find acceptable.

I admit this situation is the exception rather than the rule, but still, it
would be nice if we had decendents of extinct populations around for the
scarce opportunities that arise

But, even still, it would be beneficial to the hobby IMHO, if we could keep as
many varieties as possible available for future hobbyists.  What's wrong with
that as a primary objective in and for and unto itself?

So if anyone wants to get into this, I figure we probably need a bunch of
folks to agree to keep a species/population for a while.  When you want to
stop, we find another volunteer to take over that population for a while.
Aside from that, we need a genus coordinator to keep track of who is keeping
what for the fish in that genus, and a general coordinator, who gets periodic
updates and keeps records from the genus coordinators.  As I currently have
only a couple of tanks, and couldn't practically take on a breeding program, I
would be willing to function as general coordinator and genus coordinator for
one large genus or a group of smaller genera, at least until we get the thing
rolling.

If we can get the skelaton of it organized, we can get short articles in the
Apisto-Gram and the Buntbarsch Bulletin, to get more help.  Once we get it off
the ground, the ACA might be willing to take the ball and run with it.  It
would be reasonable that it might be expanded to include cichlids other than
dwarves.

I'm ranting, but what the heck, it might be worth the effort.  Anyone want to
join me?  I'll bet Kathy would be willing to keep A. Steindachneri, and Kaycy
already has several species that she is keeping going.  See?  We are already
on the way.  Let me know.  My Email box is always open

Bob Dixon
idmiamibob@aol.com