Saving a Fish Species only Found in One African Lake

Lake Tanganyika is the world’s longest freshwater lake. It stretches for more than 400 miles across central Africa and provides a home for some of the planet’s most extraordinary aquatic creatures. But this remarkable refuge – and its inhabitants – are under threat. Pesticide runoffs from farms, sewage and overexploitation by collectors for the ornamental fish trade are devastating life in the lake. In particular, these forces are driving many populations of cichlid fish – of which there are more than 240 species in Lake Tanganyika – to extinction. It is an alarming story that has been chronicled for the past 20 years by the Spanish photographer Angel Fitor – who has just won the portfolio award at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which opens at the Natural History Museum in London this week. His images reveal, in detail, the remarkable nature of the lake’s cichlids and the threats they face.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN