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Das Fish Ark Mexico Project

By Dibble, Ivan, M. Köck

Beiträge zur Biologie und zum Artenschutz der Hoch land kärpflinge, 140-154 2013


" The Fish Ark Mexico Project is inseparably linked lo the name of Ivan Dibble. This outstanding character, with visionary ideas and unstoppable enthusiasm, started a unique project called HALCP (Hobbyists Aqua Lab Conservation Project) in 1992 which was renamed into Fish Ark Mexico Project after his death. Its aim was and still is to save all Mexican freshwater fish from extinction.

Although, in the beginning it was all much more moderate and it was originally Ivan's aim to only revitalize the Rio Teuchitlán, which was according to the Mexican ichthyologist Arcadio Valdés González in a perilous condition, and save its endemic fish species. However, he soon realized the precarious situation in the whole country and he correspondingly extended his project. Together with the British FAIAC associario4 an alliance of European Zoo curators, biologists geneticists and specialized aquarists, he developed his project but became more and more desperate because he thought that the progress of his ideas was too slow. Finally, he had the unusual idea to realize his plan larSely with the assistance of hobby aquarists. With a lot of commitment and his ability to enthuse people he could finally win allies at the University oI Morelia and to convert the existing Laboratorio de Biologia Acuätica. Aqualab in short, into a center for the conservation and breeding of goodeids and other threatened fish species of the Mexican uplands. Three years after the death of Ivan Dibble this Aqualab has become an impressionable installation today, in which all known species of goodeids are kept in aquaria and outdoors. Moreover, there is an Aqualab II the Laboratorio de Acuacultura de Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, where the focus it besides goodeids, on the genera Cyprinodon, Gambusia and Xiphophorus.

The project has by far not reached its limits since the threats on Mexican fish are numerous and large scale, beginning with deforestation, pollution and uncontrolled water drainage, ending with the release of ornamental and exotic fish for aquaculture. However, the project leaders have meanwhile become active in Cuba and the Philippines because the menace to aquatic habitats is not solely a Mexican problem, but a global one "

Language: German

Dibble, Ivan & M. Köck. 2013. "Das Fish Ark Mexico Project". Beiträge zur Biologie und zum Artenschutz der Hoch land kärpflinge. 140-154 (ffm00752) (abstract)