THE AFRICAN FISH PORTAL

THE AFRICAN FISH PORTAL

Fish are both an evolutionary heritage threatened by human activities and a set of long term biological resources that we must preserve. For a long time, the African continent has been spared of human activities, but today this is no longer the case. The good management of inland waters is a real and vital economic issue. Indeed, for these riverine populations, the freshwater fish sometimes constitutes the alone protein availability.

African freshwater fish presents an extraordinary diversity. Today, there are slightly more than 3,400 African species belonging to 89 families among the 16,200 fish species that inhabit fresh and brackish waters worldwide. Africa is also the continent where there are more endemic families of fish. The richness and diversity of this biological heritage had formed slowly over time. Now, they must therefore be protected to be preserved. Thus, some communities, such as hundreds of endemic cichlids species from Great Lakes of the Rift Valley, are sometimes threatened while they constitute a unique model of evolution and adaptation.

In this site, we wanted to synthesize the maximum information, scientifically validated, to pass on the existing knowledge about African fish. It is a complement to the standard Fishbase and it gives new information, all free access, with regard to the geographical distribution (Faunafri) and bibliography (Cloffa) of all species.

Originally developed and maintained by IRD (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development), all applications hosted in the AFRICAN FISH PORTAL (Alestidae, Lakes and Rivers, Faunafri, Cloffa) were fully supported, since 2022, by the Biology Department of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium.