PlanetCatfish.com

Good morning to all you readers!

I had was just thinking and started a little brainstorm. Spending my last few hours in England before take off with Ingo and talking about different things we were also talking about the next Lnumber days in 2017.

At the 2013 Lnumber days we spent a lot of time talking about the Rio Xingu. The archiological history, the river and it's surrounding habitat, the inhabitants and the local tribes and community. It was, for me, one of the most interesting talks I have ever heard.
As you know, to help provide as much help as possible, Julian started a crowdfund to raise money which was then donated.

Now I don't want to spoil to much about what's coming at the 2017 Lwelse days but I do know that the Rio Tapajos will be a highlight because it will be the next big river system to be dammed in Brasil.

My question to you all; shall we set up another crowdfund and together help as much as we can to put Rio Tapajos in the spotlight and create awareness?! All the little bits help

Could we do this, together as one?!
Please share your views and ideas. Any projects on or at Rio Tapajos that could use some financial help?

http://www.water-alternatives.org/index ... 8-3-5/file

https://www.internationalrivers.org/cam ... ajós-basin

The first thing I faced with PlanetXingu was what to do with the money in such as way as it would benefit science and fishkeeping alike. So, I'd urge you to think of that.

Jools

I know, and that is a hard part. Because I don't know as much as you did when you started this.
Who is working on Tapajos? I maybe could ask Mark Sabaj but he is no longer on Facebook so I don't know how to contact him.

The thing with the Xingu, is that there was a big NSF (national science foundation of the USA) grant to study the river, so the PlanetCatfish thing piggybacked nicely on top of that.

No such program exists for the Tapajós, but I work on Tapajós loricariids, so you could always pay me to finish my papers ;)

racoll wrote:The thing with the Xingu, is that there was a big NSF (national science foundation of the USA) grant to study the river, so the PlanetCatfish thing piggybacked nicely on top of that.

No such program exists for the Tapajós, but I work on Tapajós loricariids, so you could always pay me to finish my papers ;)

I do agree, that if you were going to send someone a new drone or support to work on the fishes of the region then I think Rupert is a good shout! But what are the aims of the Tapajos project? Is it to preserve, protect, document? All three? I needs a lot of thought and research.

I also know that for every $1000 raised for PlanetXingu, I would estimate I spend about 15 hours working up this kind of info. and reaching out to people, promotion, writing and so on.

Your are doing a great thing in proposing this.

Jools

I should add ... I said that no such project exists, but I should have said that no such project exists that I know about. There could be something in the pipeline.

So, I had a chat with Andreas Tanke on the phone just now. First steps are made for building a plan and I will now start to contact a few people.
Let's see what we can do

If you've still got your CSG convention paperwork, then there is a paper hand out regarding the science fund which would, given the correct approach, supply some funds too.

Cheers,

Jools

I think that it would be worthwhile thing to do something like Species distribution modelling or Environmental niche modelling (something that is mostly applied to predicting responses to climate change: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environme ... _modelling) to predict the impact of the dams on Loricariidae distributions. This would require data on current geographical distributions of as many species as possible, habitat specificity of each species (riffle/pool; sand/rock; water depth; water flow; etc) and geographical data on the distribution of habitat types. You would also need hydrological predictions of future habitat distribution due to dams. Combined, this would provide a prediction on future habitat availability for each species within their range. I imagine that Loricariidae are a good family to focus this on due to relatively restricted ranges and habitat specificity. Therefore, they are sensitive to changes and good sentinel indicators species (like the canary in the mine). This is the kind of environmental impact assessment that should have been carried out.
As a scientist I can see a good paper in that and as an aquarist it would give me information on which species are likely to become rare or absent from the trade in the future. Racol is probably best placed to estimate how much of the required information is known and how much would need to be gathered. My guess is that the best use of money would be to employ someone like Racol for at least 6 months to carry out the analysis and write the paper.
Anyway, those are my thoughts and there may well be better ideas out there...

Progress for this week.
I managed to get in contact with Leandro Sousa and waiting for Mark to join us. Discussing possibilities to donate the money to.

Nice project Jacqueline...

Some progress!! How long it will last, no idea...

http://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/11450

Wow, that is great news and some achievement. The worrying thing is that the licencing is only suspended