NFEPA Atlas 5.3_20111025_FINAL.indd - Biodiversity GIS - SANBI

3.4 Fish sanctuariesFish sanctuaries are rivers and associatedsub-quaternary catchments that areimportant for protecting threatened andnear threatened fish species indigenous toSouth Africa. At least one third of SouthAfrica’s indigenous freshwater fish speciesare threatened. The Inkomati and Olifants/Doorn Water Management Areas are‘hotspots’ of threatened fish species.Number of threatened or near threatened fishspecies in each sub-quatenary catchment123-7Fish sanctuaries are rivers and their associated sub-quaternary catchments that areessential for protecting threatened and near threatened freshwater fish that areindigenous to South Africa (Table 3.2). These include large angling species like yellowfishas well as small fish like redfins.Figure 3.4 shows the number of threatened and near threatened fish species within eachfish sanctuary, ranging from one to as many as seven species. A goal of NFEPA is to keepfurther freshwater species from becoming threatened and to prevent those fish speciesthat are already threatened from going extinct. In order to achieve this, there should beno further deterioration in river condition in fish sanctuaries and no new permits shouldbe issued for stocking invasive alien fish in farm dams in the associated sub-quaternarycatchments. Fish management plans need to be developed in all fish sanctuaries toprotect the fish they contain. These plans should address issues such as managementof a particular stretch of the river habitat within the sub-quaternary catchment, theconstruction of weirs to keep invasive alien fish species to a minimum (following anenvironmental impact assessment), and managing aquaculture and angling to ensure nofurther introduction of invasive alien fish species.Invasive alien fish such as trout and bassshould not be introduced or stocked insub-quaternary catchments that have beenidentified as fish sanctuaries, whether forangling or aquaculture.500 kmThe IUCN Red List of threatened fish species (http://www.iucnredlist.org/initiatives/freshwater) was used as a starting point for identifying threatened and near threatenedfish species in South Africa, which included those that are critically endangered,endangered, vulnerable and near threatened (Table 3.2). Those species classified by theIUCN as data deficient but deemed by South African fish biologists to be threatened,were also included. In addition, some species contain several distinct lineages andrequire taxonomic updating that will split them into several species, e.g. Galaxiaszebratus may well be split into ten species. These were considered as separate lineagesand each lineage was treated similarly to threatened species.Figure 3.4: Fish sanctuaries for threatened and near threatened freshwater fish species indigenous to South AfricaCritically endangered redfinNational map products - 42 -Ernst Swartz