The last known habitat of an endangered fish was the focus as the Nantou branch of the Forestry Bureau on Friday announced plans to expand a multi-departmental group to protect Squalidus banarescui, a species endemic to the Dadu River (大肚溪).
The species, known locally as han tzu tiao (憨仔條), has been declared a critically endangered species by the government and its primary habitat is braided stretches of the river, which runs from Nantou County through Taichung and Changhua County.
The Irrigation Agency and Freeway Bureau were invited to join the group after a particularly important site was discovered in a section of the river near Freeway No. 6, which crosses the river five times between Taichung’s Wufeng District (霧峰) and Caotun Township (草屯) in Nantou.
In 2018, the Forestry Bureau in 2018 asked the Taichung Wildlife Conservation Association to survey the river’s fish population, which determined that braided channels in the middle of the river were crucial areas.
The Forestry Bureau’s Nantou branch said that it organized the group to facilitate horizontal communication between government agencies whose operations might affect the fish.
The group includes entities involved in the restoration of the species and its habitat, it said, adding that the Fisheries Research Institute is artificially breeding the fish at a research center in Taipei’s Tamsui District (淡水).
The Central Region Water Resource Office and the Third River Management Office are restoring habitats for the fish, it said.
The Taichung association and the Endemic Species Research Institute are tasked with monitoring the fish populations and coordinating the group, it said.
The largest adult specimens of the fish are no more than 10cm in length.
They are not sought after by fishers as they are inedible, local fly fishers told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times).
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