Issues for the conservation and management of Falkland Islands freshwater fishes

Abstract

Abstract The Falkland Islands, in the cool‐temperate south‐western Atlantic Ocean, have an impoverished freshwater fish fauna, with only two indigenous species certainly present there: the Falklands minnow, Galaxias maculatus , and the zebra trout, Aplochiton zebra . Additional species whose presence there is uncertain are the southern pouched lamprey, Geotria australis , and the Patagonian puyen, Galaxias platei . Brown trout, Salmo trutta , were introduced in the mid‐20th century, and sea‐migratory (diadromous) populations are widespread. Distributions of zebra trout and brown trout, particularly, are complementary, suggesting that brown trout are having detrimental impacts on zebra trout. Zebra trout have suffered massive decline over the past few decades and remain largely in restricted areas that brown trout have not yet invaded. Owing to their sea‐migratory habits, it can be expected that brown trout will eventually invade all significant streams on the Falkland Islands. This raises issues of serious concern since zebra trout are also probably sea‐migratory, and therefore need access to and from the sea to complete their life cycles. Therefore, any streams accessible to zebra trout are potentially accessible also to brown trout, raising the spectre that eventually brown trout will invade all the streams where zebra trout persist. The existence of landlocked populations of zebra trout provides some form of protection from brown trout invasion, though a landlocked stock does not represent the full behavioural and genetic diversity of zebra trout in Falkland's waters, and must be regarded as a last resort means for conservation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.