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Thread: Talk on Fishes in Laos

  1. #1
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    Talk on Fishes in Laos

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    "Fish and dams in Laos: Field studies in environmental assessments and conservation"

    Maurice Kottelat
    Independent Aquatic Biodiversity Consultant
    RMBR Honorary Research Associate

    Thursday, 7th October 2004: 10.00am - 12.00noon

    DBS Seminar Room 2
    Blk S2, Level 4, Department of Biological Sciences
    The National University of Singapore
    Science Drive 4

    Host: Peter Ng

    About the Talk
    About 500 fish species are presently known from Laos, of which 300 have been discovered since 1996, mainly during base-line surveys in connection with hydro-power development. The fish fauna of Laos will be presented.

    The discovery that the local biodiversity was so much underestimated creates additional problems for the project's impact assessment and points to the value and non-negotiable need for obtaining hard data in the field.

    A number of conservation actions suffer from very poor baseline data. Data may be inadequate, antiquated, heterogeneous, incompetent, or even faked. Too often, data are obtained by exploring library shelves or, more recently, on the internet. This ignores the reality of nature, that there are few general rules but only collections of individual cases. Information or experience gained from some cases studies often cannot be simply transposed to others. Each case is unique and requires its own data. Field biology is the only way to obtain the baseline data needed to predict and mitigate impacts of development projects, conceive and implement conservation of organisms and ecosystems, and manage biodiversity. Examples will be used from various projects and researches concerned with fishes and aquatic biodiversity.

    About the speaker

    Dr Maurice Kottelat specializes in fish taxonomy and ecology, and is an
    independent consultant on aquatic biodiversity. He is also an Honorary
    Research Associate of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR), NUS; and President of the European Ichthyological Society. Dr Kottelat has written over 200 scientific papers on fish taxonomy, and eight books on fish diversity (freshwater fishes of Western Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos); and has over 24 years of field experience on freshwater fish fauna of Eurasia. In addition, he is Editor of the journal Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters; and Editorial Board member of the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.

    ALL ARE WELCOME!

  2. #2
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    Maybe i'll go to attend...thanks for the announcement!
    Wanna see Borneo? Just click...http://junglemikey.blogspot.com/

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    How much do we have to pay? Or is it FOC.

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    AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!


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    don't cry uncle. :P I will ask if possible to tape the talk, and take some pics of uncle Maurice (if he can fit into the viewfinder).....

    so sorry no chance to say bye bye also.... you called me with my pants Down Under

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    Thanks to Benny, he gave me the book on fishes of Laos.

    sorry can't show u the content as it is sensitive to show the photos taken by somebody else....but its ok to show u guys the cover:



    some pix taken in DBS of NUSafter listening to the talk by Dr Maurice Kottelat)









    Wanna see Borneo? Just click...http://junglemikey.blogspot.com/

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    to see more on my trip to NUS,click this link:

    http://www.petfrd.com/forum/showthre...257#post150257
    Wanna see Borneo? Just click...http://junglemikey.blogspot.com/

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    The session was both a delight and "depressing", as any talk on conservation would tend to be. Dr. Kottelat presented slides showing a rich diversity (nearly 500 species) of fishes in the country, and a strange assortment of habitats and landscapes (there is an amazing region where you have huge tunnels (some with water) that go under the mountains, which the locals use for travelling, since going over the mountains is tougher). Many of the fish species were described only in the last 10-20 years, including incredible creatures like a stingray that can reach 2 m in diamater and 6 m in length (with tail), rapids cyprinids with grotesque rostrums on the head and large tubercles, tiny sardine-like fishes that live in the confluence of waters with different temperatures, catfish with remora-like suction disks, fin-eating puffers, worm-fish that live in mud rather than water, and of course the immense 3 m long giant Mekong river catfish.

    Yet, much of this biodiversity is under threat, as dams, timber companies, pulp and paper factories and other symbols of "development" march into the country, with little regard for their impact on local natural resources as well as indigenous communities. One wonders: is the revenue from a one-off timber or mining concession (that destroys a mountain top habitat) going to compensate for subsequent events such as soil erosion (making the land non-arable), pollution of waterways (which reduce fish catches for fishermen downstream), floods and landslides (as the trees that soak up rain and buffer against soil movement), and the displacement of villagers without adequate compensation?

    Sadly, the decision for economic projects are people who either have no understanding of biodiversity or who chose to disregard or work around the Environmental Assessment studies that Dr. Kottelat conducts. It appears that in Southeast Asia, the vast bulk of the region's natural heritage will have to be irrevocably lost, before people realise what they are missing.

    Much could be said about ways to devise economic models that give incentives for preserving biodiversity (e.g. that countries are accorded rights to a share of revenue from a new wonder drug obtained from a tree in its forests, or that peat swamp land owners be given enforcable property rights so that they see it worthwhile to preserve the swamp and harvest its fish sustainably). But to most people in power, such ideas remain poor cousins to mega projects like dams, industrial zones and heavy industries.

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    Same situation everywhere in this world man.


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    Sadly, Dr. K also showed slides on how some folks in Southern China are destroying entire rivers by electrocuting the water, thereby killing ALL life. The people will just remove whatever's good to eat and leave the rest to rot. Some rivers, he said, are now nothing but watery graveyards.

  11. #11
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    Our next generation will suffer the most.....they may be only see tilapia in the long kang...the only species left in the polluted world....or maybe nothing at all in the long kang.

    Then, Mr Tree's grand son can not go fishing loh....
    Wanna see Borneo? Just click...http://junglemikey.blogspot.com/

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