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Book Fauna Palaestina 4 Year 2014 By Prof Dr Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf von Jaffa ISBN 978-9950-383-77-7

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In addition there are a number of freshwater fish of marine origin<br />

(species from the families: Blenniidae, Mugilidae and Anguillidae).<br />

Some consider Salaria fluviatilis, a freshwater blenny species par<br />

excellence throughout the entire Mediterranean region, to be a relic<br />

from the Tethys Sea period (Goren, 1975).<br />

The damage to inland water body habitat<br />

Wetlands are considered extremely sensitive to development processes<br />

and are in danger of extinction throughout the world, particularly in<br />

arid or semiarid countries such as Palestine. Threats to these habitats<br />

result from a number of factors:<br />

1. Increasing exploitation of water sources for human needs.<br />

2. <strong>Dr</strong>ainage of wetlands for agriculture or urban development.<br />

3. Accelerated exploitation of groundwater reservoirs that leads to the<br />

drying of surface water bodies.<br />

4. Processes of fragmentation and barrier creation between<br />

neighboring water bodies or water bodies that were previously linked<br />

by continuous flow.<br />

5. Discharge of effluents and wastewater into stream and riverbeds.<br />

6. Pisciculture in natural habitats and deliberate and accidental<br />

stocking of natural habitats with exotic fish species.<br />

The effect of these factors on the populations of aquatic organisms is<br />

also amplified, among other reasons, by the following habitat<br />

characteristics:<br />

a. the dimensions of most terrestrial water bodies are small, with<br />

corresponding small fish populations;<br />

b. many water bodies are regularly or temporarily isolated from<br />

neighboring water bodies;<br />

c. poisons and fertilizers are discharged into water bodies from<br />

71

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