Breekkrans River Restoration
Restoring a river to conserve the Critically Endangered Doring Fiery Redfin
The Doring River Fiery Redfin is endemic to tributaries of the Doring River in South Africa’s Cape Fold Ecoregion. This small but beautiful fish has been displaced from most of its natural habitat by predation from invasive alien fish like spotted bass. Today only a few hundred individuals remain, pushed into corners above waterfalls blocking bass, highly vulnerable to extinction.
THE BREEKKRANS RIVER
The Breekkrans River Restoration Project aims to mechanically remove alien spotted bass from 8km of the otherwise-pristine Breekkrans River to increase the range of the Critically Endangered Doring fiery redfin from 2km to 10km.
RESTORING CRITICAL FISH HABITAT
Invasive fish are the top threat to the Doring Fiery Redfin in the Breekkrans River, which are now limited to less than 2 km of river habitat. This project aims to manually remove spotted bass from 8 km of river which will drastically increase the range of the Fiery redfin and five other endemic species.
841
Number of invasive spotted bass removed from the Breekkrans River
9 km
Length of river restored
4
Number of local community members unskilled and employed
BARRIER WEIR
A weir has been built to keep invasive fish out of the Breekkrans River in the future. The weir is passable by migratory indigenous species, but blocks invasive fish movement upstream. The weir was designed by engineer Hans King and built by Meyer-Beton Construction.
FUNDERS
PARTNERS
