North-West University Committed to Ensuring a Future for Migratory Fish Species
The Water Research Group (WRG) from the School of Biological Sciences and the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at the North-West University (NWU) collaborated with Nature-I-Am to celebrate World Fish Migration Day. Children between the ages of 4 and 13 from twenty different schools across Potchefstroom, Stilfontein and Fochville participated in the celebration, which took place at the appealing Lekwena Wildlife Estate on Saturday, 25 May.
The primary goal of the celebration was to raise awareness on the importance of fish migration and healthy, free-flowing rivers. The children enjoyed face painting, engaged in lessons and activities and received goodie bags.
Migration plays an important role in the life cycles of many fish species. These migrations include both short- and long-distance movements of the fish for the purposes of breeding, feeding and avoiding unfavourable environmental conditions.
Prof Nico Smit, a professor of Aquatic Ecology and Wildlife Parasitology at the NWU’s School of Biological Sciences, said it is pivotal to protect our rivers and ensure a healthy ecosystem from which humans can also benefit. Prof Smit also said the best place to start awareness on the protection of our water and rivers is among young children, as they are the leaders of the future.
“If we promote healthy, free-flowing rivers where fish can migrate effectively, and if we educate the young children on this kind of topic, they will be able to make good decisions for our environment in the future,” Prof Smit added.
The educational activities that promoted the awareness of fish migration consisted of ten different stations and included an overview of fish, information on the fish food chain, and a collection of aquatic invertebrates. Fish collection, fish behaviour, predator-prey interactions, threats to fish, ish feeding, fish migration, fish parasites and fish habitats were among the additional concepts explained to the children. The eleventh station was a photo booth, where the children enjoyed taking photos while being dressing up as fish scientists.
“The children showed their excitement through their facial expressions as they arrived at a new station. One other advantage I noticed was that parents were present, and they too gained a great deal of knowledge from this awareness initiative,” said Prof Smit.
While Dr Mariliese Truter, a postdoctoral fellow at the WRG, loved interacting with the children, she acknowledged that it was sometimes difficult to explain complicated concepts to them.
Tshenolo Masilo, a master’s-degree student who is currently conducting research at the WRG on largescale yellow fish, parasite communities and historical ecology, was responsible for explaining the fish food web to the children. One of her memorable moments was receiving a chocolate from one of the children.