It’s not all unicorns and rainbows when it comes to Arapaima.
At first, Guillermo was catching native fish, such as the various kinds of catfish that inhabit the river. But then a giant freshwater fish arrived, known locally as paiche or Arapaima Gigas, to give it its scientific name.
It is generally believed its arrival resulted from a breach of a paiche fish farm in Peru, where the fish are native. From there, they spread into Bolivia’s rivers.
Federico Moreno, director of the Beni Autonomous University’s Centre for Aquatic Resources Research, says its size and appetite severely threaten native fish stocks.
LINK (via BBC)
Probably the poor old Arapaima’s last hope, with much of its home range Brazilian Amazon fished out, presently dried up and to and for the last, high-cost super-cheap, big-something beefburger, cut down. My God, we’re a destructive lot.