GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Some 659 fish species were found and documented during research efforts conducted in Guyana by foreign and local biologists. It is believed that this information can be used to inform governmental decisions about areas where fishes need to be protected.
The findings come after Donald Taphorn, a retired biologist from the United States, and a team of other researchers, including Elford Liverpool, the head of the Department of Biology at the University of Guyana, compiled, researched, and documented the list of the fish species explored thus far.
Taphorn, in an interview with the Guyana News Room, explained that his research began when he was an undergrad, but this was to study the impact of the ornamental fish industry in South America.
“We found that there was very heavy mortality in the handling of the fishes, but that impacts were localized…so that’s how I ended up going to Guyana the first time. We also made collections of the fishes in the places we visited, and I guess that’s when I started trying to identify them,” he said.
Since then, Taphorn, Liverpool, and numerous other researchers and biologists have combined their knowledge of fish to identify over 600 species. But this is not all. The researchers suspect that there are over 200 species yet to be compiled as certain areas are not yet explored.
He said although the research has taken years to compile, and samples were taken from several parts of Guyana, much more can be done in this regard.
The next phase will include creating maps to identify areas where one specie is highly populated. Another will be for the areas where the specie risks extension to be protected.
“To the average citizen whose only concern is what fish he wants to eat for supper, it probably isn’t that big of a deal, but for scientists, it’s important to inform governmental decisions about where the biodiversity hot spots are in Guyana and which areas need to be protected,” the researcher said.
This research can significantly support the country’s biodiversity preservation plans. Human activities, especially mining, alter Guyana’s river physio chemistry and geomorphology. The study states that this results in significant shifts in fish community structure.
While many fishes are mentioned in the article, the arapaima fish, widely sought for its meat, is endangered. But there’s more, Taphorn said.
“We used to think that the arapaima in South America is just one species, but recently, work by Dr. Donald Stewart and his student and Leslie De Souza, have been studying the arapaima in Guyana, and it turns out that it’s a different species. So that one is critically endangered because it is probably reduced to several thousand heavily exploited fish. After all, they are delicious.”
To add to the uses of the list, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has already started using the list to include the listed species they didn’t have on their list of fish species in Guyana.
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