{"id":570738,"date":"2026-03-30T12:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/570738\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:58:12","slug":"amazon-nations-are-uniting-to-save-the-dorado-catfish-which-has-the-worlds-longest-freshwater-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/570738\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon nations are uniting to save the dorado catfish, which has the world\u2019s longest freshwater migration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex\u2019s Perpetual Planet Initiative<\/a> has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.\n<\/p>\n

\n When the annual rains return to the Amazon, the murky river swells and quickens. For the dorado catfish, that rising tide is a millennia-old cue: it\u2019s time for a continent-spanning homeward voyage.\n <\/p>\n

\n Its 7,000-mile round trip is the longest freshwater migration on Earth \u2014 and one of the most endangered.\n <\/p>\n

\n Scientists only uncovered the full extent of its odyssey in recent years. The dorado, part of the \u201cGoliath\u201d catfish family and also known as the gilded catfish, spawns in the Amazon River\u2019s headwaters in the Andes. The larvae drift thousands of miles downstream to the estuary, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. The nutrient-rich, brackish water is the perfect nursery for the juvenile dorado to feed and grow \u2014 up to six feet long and 200 pounds \u2014 before it makes the 1-2 year journey back to the foothills of the Andes to lay its own eggs, and begin the cycle again.\n <\/p>\n

\n But the same route the dorado has followed for millennia is now being choked by hydropower dams and river fragmentation, blocking the fish from reaching its breeding sites and triggering steep population declines.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n A new international action plan<\/a>, proposed by Brazil<\/a> at the UN-backed Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) and signed yesterday aims to reverse that trend, uniting six countries in an effort to keep the river connected and give the dorado \u2014 and six other species of migratory Goliath catfish \u2014 a chance to complete their journey home.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201c(The dorado) is incredibly important to people living all along the Amazon River,\u201d says Dr. Zeb Hogan, a biology professor at the University of Nevada and councilor for freshwater fish for CMS.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe need to get everyone together, to try to work together to figure out how to protect these incredible animals.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Migratory species are difficult to protect because they cross international borders; the dorado is found across nine countries<\/a> in South America.\n <\/p>\n

\n What happens in one section of the river ripples across the whole system: in 2019, studies<\/a> found that dorado numbers in Bolivia, one of the locations where the catfish spawns, dropped by 80% in 15 years<\/a> after two dams were built downstream in Brazil.\n <\/p>\n

\n They risk disappearing from this upstream section of river entirely, but it also has a knock-on effect downstream: the dorado is an apex predator, keeping smaller species populations in check and the entire river ecosystem in balance.\n <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n More careful planning for future hydropower projects, including assessments of their impact on migratory fish from the outset, could help reduce harm and improve site selection, says Hogan.\n <\/p>\n

\n For existing dams, interventions like fish ladders<\/a> \u2014 a structure or tunnel that allows migrating fish to get around or through the dam \u2014 or the removal of old or disused dams can help unblock migration routes, Hogan says: \u201cScientists have been surprised how fast these migratory fish can come back when they\u2019re given a chance to move through the system.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Migratory fish like the dorado are also essential to local food security, economies and cultural heritage.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSpecies such as dourada, piramutaba, and other catfish are highly valued both for their size and for their food quality,\u201d Dino Delgado, engagement and policy lead for Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Amazon Waters, told CNN in a message.\n <\/p>\n

\n Around 47 million people<\/a> live in the Amazon region, and its fisheries are heavily reliant on migratory species, which account for 93% of catch and generate $436 million annually, according to CMS.\n <\/p>\n

\"Around<\/p>\n

\n In addition to hydropower dams, fish in the Amazon face added pressures<\/a> from mercury contamination from mining, and overfishing.\n <\/p>\n

\n In an open letter<\/a> to the delegation at CMS, fishers from the Madeira basin \u2014 one of the most interrupted sections of river in the Amazon due to two large dams in Porto Velho \u2014 emphasized the need for \u201ccoordinated and urgent action\u201d from governments, adding: \u201cInternational efforts will only succeed if they go hand in hand with artisanal fishers, Indigenous peoples, and the communities that inhabit the Amazon.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Delgado, who has worked closely on the action plan\u2019s development, says with the plan approved, important work will begin \u2014 from collating local scientific and Indigenous knowledge about critical habitats, to regional efforts to standardize data collection.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The collaboration between the six Amazonian nations is a \u201cmilestone\u201d for biodiversity conservation that will strengthen scientific knowledge and harmonize policies and regulations across the region, Guillermo Estupi\u00f1\u00e1n, wetlands and aquatic resources specialist at WCS Brazil, told CNN in an email.\n <\/p>\n

\n The dorado \u2014 along with the laulau \u201cGoliath\u201d catfish, which can grow up to 12 feet long and weigh 400 pounds<\/a> \u2014 was added to the CMS protection list in 2024 \u2014 a move which laid the foundation for the now-approved action plan, says Amy Fraenkel, the executive secretary for CMS.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor other species, there are these kinds of cooperative agreements under CMS,\u201d says Fraenkel, pointing to the Central Asian mammal initiative as a successful model. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t [previously] done that for freshwater fish, so that\u2019s why this example is so powerful.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The dorado\u2019s struggle reflects a global crisis. A CMS report<\/a>, released at the organization\u2019s convention in Brazil last week, analyzed data on 15,000 species, identifying 325 species of migratory freshwater fish in need of international protection.\n <\/p>\n

\n Asia, with 205 species listed, was flagged as a hotspot for collapsing migrations, particularly in the Mekong Delta where one of the world\u2019s largest freshwater fish, the 300-kilogram Mekong giant catfish, undertakes migrations over hundreds of kilometers<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hogan likens the migration to zebras and wildebeest crossing the Serengeti, in Tanzania. \u201cYou have an equal amount of biomass of living creatures moving underneath the water, and you wouldn\u2019t know; you can\u2019t see it,\u201d he says. However, none of the Lower Mekong nations are party to the treaty, a gap Hogan sees as \u201ca longer-term opportunity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Globally, populations of migratory freshwater fish have declined 81% since 1970. Fsh are often overlooked in conservation because they\u2019re viewed primarily as food, rather than as a \u201cbiodiversity issue,\u201d says Hogan, adding that rivers are often managed as a local resource, despite the fact that 47% of the Earth\u2019s land is covered by transboundary water. According to the UN<\/a>, around 70% of UN member states sharing waterways between two or more countries lack comprehensive cooperative agreements to manage them, leaving aquatic life vulnerable inconsistent protection.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRivers don\u2019t recognize borders \u2014 and neither do the fish that depend on them,\u201d said Michele Thieme, vice president and deputy lead of freshwater for WWF-US, in a press statement<\/a>. \u201cRivers\u202fneed to be managed\u202fas connected systems, with coordination across borders, and investments\u202fin basin-wide solutions now before these migrations are lost forever.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Back in the Amazon Basin \u2014 home to at least 2,700<\/a> freshwater fish species, more<\/a> than anywhere else in the world \u2014 the research identified 20 migratory fish that meet CMS criteria for protection.\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite the \u201calarming\u201d declines, Hogan sees the report\u2019s list of species as \u201c325 opportunities to work together,\u201d and the Amazon\u2019s catfish action plan gives him renewed reason to cautiously hope change is on the horizon.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is a model that we didn\u2019t have 10 years ago for freshwater fish. Now we have a model that other countries can follow,\u201d he adds.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-570738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}