RIO De JANEIRO – The bright pink dolphins of the Amazon River as very docile, and gentle creatures. This unfortunately makes them easy pickings for the people who trap them using harpoons and nets, as they will simply nose up beside the fishing boats to say hello.

The sad fact is that their dead, dismembered bodies are now making appearances on riverbanks in numbers that are mind boggling. Their flesh has been used as bait, and the remains have been chucked away carelessly, with no concern for how this is going to affect the species. Researchers are warning that if something is not done soon, these dolphins may suffer the same fate as those in other parts of the world; extinction. “The population of the river dolphins will collapse if these fishermen are not stopped from killing them,” explained the top aquatic mammals expert at the government’s Institute of Amazonian Research, Vera de Silva, “We’ve been studying an area of 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) for 17 years, and of late the population is dropping 7 percent each year.”

In plain English this means that somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 dolphins are hunted down and killed every year in Mamiraua Reserve of the Western Amazon, where da Silva studies these remarkable creatures.

Da Silva went on to explain that researchers first began to discover the discarded remains of these pink dolphins along the banks cerca the year 2000. They had obviously been struck down by human means, as they had been hacked and quartered, their flesh stripped away like so many a fish fillet.

The appearance of these dolphin carcasses are indicative that the killing of these dolphins is on the rise, the environmental agents and researchers say. The problem is so large in scope that the government has even admitted that there is a problem and something needs to be done about it. It is already illegal to kill these dolphins without explicit permission from the government – as is the case with all the other animals of the amazon. However, nothing is really being done in terms of enforcing those laws.

There are less than five full time environmental agents on site, which are supposed to be in charge of protecting the wildlife in the jungle region which spans across two-thirds of the Amazon. This area is two times the size of Texas, so it is no wonder that nothing gets enforced. The Brazillian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), had this to comment on the situation, “It’s a matter of priority, and right now the government is focusing on deforestation, the killings of these dolphins exists – it’s a fact.” Although nothing has been said on what exactly is being done to rectify the matter.

The pink dolphin’s flesh is a popular commodity amongst anglers, as it is a rather effective bait for catching a breed of catfish in the area, known as piracatinga.

A new species of Jupiaba tetra has been described by Brazilian ichtyologists Birindelli, JLO, AM Zanata, LM Sousa and AL Netto-Ferreira.

The fish has been given the name Juipaba kurua, a name derived from the type locality; the Curuá River which is part of the Xingu River drainage. The river name Curuá comes from the tupo language kurua.

Researchers analysed the gut content of these fishes to find out more about their habits and the results indicate that Juipaba kurua is an omnivore clearwater species that feeds along the entire length of the water column.

The faint dark Juipaba kurua is differs from its close relatives by sporting an elongate humeral blotch, a distinct dark spot on the caudal peduncle, and a pattern of dark spots on most of the scales on the sides of the body. The fish has teeth cusps of similar size and the lower jaw teeth gradually decrease in size posteriorly. The number of branched anal-fin rays varies from 21 to 24.

The description of Juipaba kurua was published in the latest issue of the journal Neotropical Ichthyology.

Birindelli, JLO, AM Zanata, LM Sousa and AL Netto-Ferreira (2009) New species of Jupiaba Zanata (Characiformes: Characidae) from Serra do Cachimbo, with comments on the endemism of upper rio Curuá, rio Xingu basin, Brazil. Neotropical Ichthyology 7, pp. 11–18.

The cichlid genus Crenicichla now has two new described members: Crenicichla tesay and Crenicichla mandelburgeri.

Crenicichla tesay

Crenicichla tesay lives in the Paraná River drainage and was described by Argentinian ichthyologists Jorge Casciotta and Adriana Almirón. The fish was caught in the Iguazú River upstream of Iguazú falls in Argentina, an environment characterized by falls and pools with clear and rapidly flowing water. The bottom in this habitat consists of stones, mud and sand.

The name Crenicichla tesay is derived from the Guaraní word for tears; the fish displays a tear-shaped suborbital stripe. You can distinguish Crenicichla tesay from its close relatives by the existence of a serrated posterior preopercle border, the number of scales on the E1 row, the length of the snout, and the colour pattern which consists of a suborbital stripe, 4–6 dark blotches and numerous irregularly scattered dots on the sides of the body.

The description has been published in the journal Revue Suisse de Zoologie[1]. For more information, see the paper: Casciotta, J and A Almirón (2008) Crenicichla tesay, a new species of cichlid (Perciformes: Labroidei) from the río Iguazú basin in Argentina. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 115, pp. 651–660.

Crenicichla mandelburgeri

Just like Crenicichla tesay, this newly described cichlid hails from the Paraná River drainage. It was described by Swedish ichthyologist Sven Kullander and named Crenicichla mandelburgeri in honour of Paraguayan ichthyologist Darío Mandelburger.

The Crenicichla mandelburgeri specimens were collected from two different environments. Some lived in the rapids of a large stream (5-10 meters wide and up to 1 meter deep) with turbid, brownish water. Others lived in a much smaller stream (up to 3 meters wide) with shallower brown water where both velocity and transparency fluctuated. In this environment, the bottom consisted of stones and sand and was generally without any plants.

Young Crenicichla mandelburgeri cichlids feature numerous narrow vertical bars along the side, which changes into an irregular dark horizontal band as the fish matures. You can also distinguish Crenicichla mandelburgeri from other crenicichlas by the distinct caudal blotch, the number of scales in the lateral row and in the E1 row, the lower jaw (which is longer than the upper), and the serrated preopercular margin.

For more information, see the paper: Kullander, SO (2009) Crenicichla mandelburgeri, a new species of cichlid fish (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from the Paraná river drainage in Paraguay. You can find it in Zootaxa 2006: 41–50.[2]

Crenicichla

Crenicichla is the cichlid genus where you can find the largest number of described species, about 75 species. They live on the South American continent where they inhabit freshwater rivers, streams, pools and lakes. The richest variation of species is encountered in the Amazon region, but you can find Crenicichla cichlids as far north as Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia and as far south as Uruguay and central Argentina where the water can become fairly cold in the winter.