Of the approximately 2,500 fish species found in the Amazon Basin, two catfish are special both to state economies in the region and to global biology: the gilded or dorado (Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii) and the piramutaba (B. vaillantii). Not only widely appreciated in the culinary world and selling at high prices, these fish are the farthest-migrating freshwater species: the dorado swims approximately 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles) during its life cycle. But last year, the dorado’s status was updated to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. The piramutaba is not yet listed, but is expected by specialists to be placed on the list soon. Another step was taken in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in February to call global attention to the survival of these emblematic Amazon species. At the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention, treaty holders voted to place the dorado and piramutaba on their list. “In recent years, the dorado’s occupation and migration area has shrunk by 37% because of dams built in the Madeira River Basin,” affirms biologist Guillermo Estupiñán, fisheries resource specialist for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Estupiñán attended the event, during which the Brazilian government presented a proposal that the species be included in the convention’s Appendix II. The gilded catfish, or dorado (Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii), is the fish with the longest freshwater migration on the planet, swimming some 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles). Image courtesy of Michael Goulding/WCS. Estupiñán explains that the migratory animals listed in Appendix I are those in most…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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