Researchers present a history of the diversity of freshwater fish species from Lago Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua), describing the history of biological explorations in the lake from the first record in 1519 to the 52 species recognised in the lake currently, from bull sharks, sawfish to the 18 species of cichlids that inhabit this amazing lake.
Open-access – https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/8506
The authors discuss the current and future threats to this unique freshwater ecosystem, from overfishing, invasive species to the potential construction of a “Nicaragua canal” connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
Lake Cocibolca is well-known for its population of bull sharks (𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑠) which most likely originally populated the lake having swam the 192km up the San Juan river from the Caribbean Sea. Historically, scientists thought the freshwater sharks of Lake Cocibolca were a unique, endemic species, the Lake Nicaragua shark (𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠), but they have since been synonymized with 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑠, the bull shark.
Until the late 1970s, there was a thriving artisanal fishery in sawfish and bull shark meat and fins, however, the population of elasmobranch species collapsed with the introduction of modern fishing techniques and fish processing plants on the lake.
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲
Fishes of Cocibolca, the great Central American lake
𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Topiltzin Contreras-MacBeath, Byron Josue Rodríguez Pérez, Humberto Mejia-Mojica, Juan Manuel Rivas-González. Fishes of Cocibolca, the great Central American lake. Journal of Threatened Taxa, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8506.16.1.24589-24596
𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
The diversity of freshwater fish species from Lake Cocibolca (Nicaragua) is presented, describing the history of biological explorations in the lake from the first record in 1519, to the 52 species that are listed today. Information on current and future threats is also included.
𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁
1) 𝑅ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠 by michaelangelo. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
2) 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑗𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑎 by Muséum-Aquarium de Nancy/D. Terver. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
3) 𝐶𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑜ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑠 𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠 by DATZ. https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/photos/PicturesSummary.php…
4) 𝐴𝑚𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠 by ihunta. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
5) 𝐺𝑜𝑏𝑖𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑢𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠 by prickly_sculpin https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/101605-Gobiomorus-maculatus. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
6) 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑠, large-tooth sawfish by Peter Kyne, Charles Darwin University. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
7) Bull sharks (𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑠)
Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published in Journal of Threatened Taxa journal. This paper is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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