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Pros and cons of alien fish introductions: a case scenario from Pakistan

. Wishah Bilal & Abdul Majid Khan


Abstract

The intentional introductions of alien fishes as food and sport fishes or unintentional escapes from aquaria, bait buckets and water gardens etc. in freshwater ecosystems are continuously influencing the biodiversity of native fauna worldwide. This study aims to raise concern for the introduction of alien fishes in Pakistan as the authorities responsible for these introductions are only focusing on their economic benefits rather than their impacts on the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems of the country. For this purpose around 220 articles having information regarding global alien fish introductions and their respective ecological and socioeconomic losses were considered. This review provides a bird’s eye view of the impacts of the introduction of alien fishes in freshwater ecosystems of different continents and their strategies to cope with this problem. In addition it has provided the range expansion of introduced fishes in the freshwater ecosystems of Pakistan. Lack of a proper strategy along with poor management and control of such introductions can lead to long-lasting ecological damages by alien fishes in Pakistan.

Index Terms-alien fishes, Pakistan, freshwater, ecological, socioeconomics

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