WHAT CAN WE DO TO CONSERVE THE REMAINING NATIVE AND ENDEMIC FISH SPECIES?

WHAT CAN WE DO TO CONSERVE THE REMAINING NATIVE AND ENDEMIC FISH SPECIES?

I have been reading many sad stories about endangered wildlife, but one story recently really made me sad: 15 fish species endemic to Lake Lanao are already extinct in the wild.

Gone.

Dead.

And because they were endemic to Lake Lanao, we cannot simply go to another country and bring them back.

This is the big difference between a native species and an endemic species. A native species may also naturally occur elsewhere, while an endemic species is found nowhere else in the world.

According to the IUCN assessment, 15 endemic Lake Lanao cyprinids were declared extinct, while two others were classified as Critically Endangered, Possibly Extinct.

How did we allow this to happen?

Why did we not know early enough that these fish were disappearing?

I do not want to point fingers. But whose fault was it? Was it the LGUs around Lake Lanao? The DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau? BFAR? MSU? Or all of us, in one way or another?

Research points to a combination of introduced fish, human exploitation, habitat changes and pollution. One study found that the lake, once home to 18 endemic cyprinids, had been reduced to only a few surviving endemic species in its surveys. 

One introduced fish deserves particular attention.

Glossogobius giuris, locally called pijanga, was introduced into Lake Lanao decades ago to increase fish production and has been associated with the decline of endemic fish. 

But I would be careful about simply blaming tilapia. The scientific evidence points to a much bigger ecological problem involving several introduced species, overfishing, pollution and habitat degradation.

So what do we do now?

First, I believe we need a national inventory of our native and endemic wildlife, especially freshwater fish. We should know which species are Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered—or possibly already gone. The IUCN system gives us a common framework for doing this.

Second, we should immediately search for surviving populations in tributaries, rivers and neighboring lakes.

There is reason for hope. Researchers recently confirmed surviving Barbodes tumba, an endemic Lake Lanao fish, in the Agus River through DNA barcoding. Conservation work is now looking at cryopreservation.

Third, let us establish conservation hatcheries and gene banks for species that are still alive but critically threatened.

Fourth, we need to control invasive and introduced species, protect spawning areas, improve water quality and stop destructive fishing practices.

And finally, let us properly fund the people and institutions that are supposed to do this work—DENR, DA-BFAR, NFRDI, LGUs and our universities, including MSU, UPLB and UP-MSI.

I keep asking myself:

How many other Philippine species are quietly disappearing while we are not looking?

We should not wait until a species becomes extinct before we begin conserving it.

For endemic species, extinction is forever.

And once they are gone, no amount of money, technology or regret can bring them back.

This version deliberately treats the Lake Lanao disaster as a warning for the entire Philippine freshwater biodiversity system, rather than as a case of blaming one agency or one fish species.

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres  iseneres@yahoo.com  senseneres.blogspot.com  09088877282/09-15-2027