Back from the Amazon, again

[Shane]

Hello all,
Some snapshots I took last week while collecting in the Amazon.

Felipe Parra standing next to some big pims at a fish vendors packing facility in Leticia, Colombia.


Francisco Castellanos and I in a Yagua village. We stopped here because the Yagua told us there were Discus, but all we collected were angelfish.



Collecting angelfish with the Yagua. I am in the hat.



We came across this kid who was fishing loricariids in the black water Rio Gamboa. Sorting through his catch we found three spp.



A close up.



Lunch time!



End of a typical day cruising into the sunset.

[spiny]

Nice photos! One photo tells more than 1000 words! You are very welcome to show as many as you like!

Amazing how many Loricariids it is, in that boat! How long had he been fishing? And in how large an area? Does the Loricariid spp in nature regenerate rapidly?

I just wonder why I sit here in Scandinavia doing securitywork, when I could do a lot more interesting things at warmer latitudes...

Thanks for inspiring me!

[BIGblue]

Amazing pictures. It must be nice to go out and catch your own fish instead of depending on LFS.

[polkadot]

Cool pictures!!!

[Graeme]

Lovely Pictures!!





Graeme.

[Yann]

Hi!

Wonderful pictures Shane as usual...
Woua how tall is this little boy?
Cheers
Yann

[Shane]

Yann,
I am not sure that Felipe would be happy if he knew you called him a "little boy." He is a Colombian biologist. Felipe is about 5'4" or so.
Spiny,
I doubt that loricariids are over fished as they are pretty much just fished for local consumption. The main problem is that they are caught with gill nets and lots of fish are wasted. You can always tell where someone is gill netting as there are many dead floating fish downstream of their fishing location. The boat load represents about four hours fishing with a 200 foot long gill net. The net is run perpendicular to the bank and catches the loricariids as they try to leave or return to their nests in the bank. I would also imagine that the populations regenerate quickly as Glyptopterichthys produce large broods and the fry are protected by the parents for the first week or so. The fry also have ample food (algae) and few predators. I am sure that the survival rate is much better for loricariids than say for tetra or cichlid fry.
-Shane