Amazon Dam Project

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laxdude

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Jan 29, 2015
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http://amazonwatch.org/work/belo-monte-dam
Anyone else heard of this!?!?
it absolutely horrible and will cause mass extinction throughout the Amazon. 100s of 1,000s of unique fish will be endangered!
there is talk of calling upon fish people to breed and save all these soon to be endangered species.
the list includes several tropical plecos, angelfish and other rare tropical fishes

HELP SAVE THE ROOTS OF THE HOBBY!


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Star_Rider

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Dec 21, 2005
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anytime I see something like this I prefer to get educated before making any rash conclusion.
 

vanillarum

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Jan 4, 2008
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This has been ongoing for almost 10 years now. Check out the Monga Bay site, you can find much info. The L046 zebra pleco will be extinct in the wild very shortly due to this project, and there are many, many more that will join them. **** shame the Brazilian govt cares more about $ than preserving unique species. There will also be thousands (if not more) indigenous people forced to move from their tribal lands. This is a travesty...
 

phreeflow

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Mar 28, 2009
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Brazil finally approved and started the Belo Monte Dam this past Nov 2015, with 2 more in the same area. This will be the 3rd largest dam in the world and will displace 40k people and destroy the habitat many of our plecos come from. Ultimately, it looks like the total project will include 60-70 more dams.

It's a real shame...L400, L46, L14, L081, L082, L174, L333 sp Xingu, and soooo many others are from this Altimira/Belo Monte/Rio Xingu area and are in great danger of going extinct. The L46 is endemic in this area and will probably become extinct in the wild in a few short years from what I've read. Really sad...

The Rio Xingu bend will more than likely dry out, killing all the fish in that area. Even if not, the deep dam waters will be anoxic (deprive of oxygen) and frigid in the lower depths where plecos reside. This will spell disaster for the plecos that are Adapted to warm, fast-moving, highly-oxygenated waters. Also, the rotting forest overtaken by dam water will cause bacterial blooms which again, can lead to dead zones.

What Vanillarium is doing by breeding these L400 is very important work. Wish there was more that can be done to stop this project. The Mekong River is also facing similar perils...
 
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rsanz

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Aug 22, 2006
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This is pretty depressing. :(
 

rufioman

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Aug 16, 2010
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Yup. The country itself is super unstable, but destroying local ecosystems is apparently a stable thing to do.
 

phreeflow

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Kannan Fodder

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Not from the same area, but I have a tropical fish book (What Fish) that states the "red-tailed black shark" may already be extinct in the wild due to over collecting and habitat destruction.
 

phreeflow

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Mar 28, 2009
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I'm afraid I know nothing about red tail sharks but I wouldn't doubt what you have read about them. It's a real shame.

What really bugs me about these plecos is that many of them were only recently discovered in the past 15-20 years and they may be gone already due to habitat destruction. In fact, there's probably many more undiscovered in this river system we may never see
 
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