Dave Tickner

Finally, a focus on freshwater fish Fish are disappearing in an African lake that feeds the people of four countries. Freshwater lakes may not be as vast as oceans but they are just as important.

“It’s time we stopped treating freshwater fishes as an afterthought… We must act now before the rivers dry out.”

news-decoder.com/finally-a-fo...

🐟 Out now: WWF’s new Africa’s Forgotten Fishes report sounds the alarm for Africa’s freshwater fishes and their ecosystems.

❌ 26% of assessed freshwater fish species on the continent are threatened with extinction, and the true number may be even higher.

📘 Read the report: africa.panda.org

📢 We're hiring!

Roles at SHOAL don't come up that often, and when they do, we know they're exciting: are you our new Data Officer?

Learn more and apply here
👉 shoalconservation.org/careers/

300 dams demolished for ‘world’s biggest’ revival of river habitat Dams and hydropower stations change water flows, reduce oxygen levels, and sever vital connections between spawning and feeding grounds.

Could this be the biggest river restoration initiative in the world?

interestingengineering.com/culture/300-...

@jjopperman.bsky.social

One for you @crocodiledunphd.bsky.social

$1500 to save a species? A bargain.

The Public Values Water But Sees Challenges Differently Than Companies A set of polls—including more than 30,000 people across 31 countries—found that the public sees water as a top priority, with an emphasis on water quality.

A poll of 30,000 people in 31 countries found that the public places very high value on water and prioritizes protecting water quality, lakes and rivers - and their priority actions are somewhat different than what companies generally focus on...
www.forbes.com/sites/jeffop...

Environmental exposure levels of antibiotics in global rivers. Total risk quotient is calculated as the sum of individual risk quotients of all 40 antibiotics in the global river system under low-flow conditions.

As consumption of antibiotics has risen around the world, so has antibiotic pollution of rivers. A model identifies the rivers most likely affected and the drugs most likely to be found in the water. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Water and aquatic foods in revised principles of agroecology can accelerate food systems transformation - Nature Food Agroecological principles emphasize a holistic approach to food systems transformation but rarely consider water or aquatic foods. This Perspective explores how agroecological principles could be modi...

Love this new work by Sarah Freed, @micgylo.bsky.social et al.

A forensic look at how #agroecology principles & frameworks address #water & aquatic #biodiversity. [TL;DR: There's much room for improvement.]
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Scratches an itch that has bothered me for a while. Kudos.

Activate climate’s ‘silent majority’ to supercharge action, experts say Making concerned people aware their views are far from alone could unlock the change so urgently needed

Concerned about nature & the environment?

Want to know how to encourage faster action to tackle the causes of environmental destruction?

The best thing to do might be simply to talk about it - to friends, family, colleagues.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Discover world-class footage of our changing planet. Open Planet is a global library of high-quality climate and nature footage. It is free to use for educational, environmental and impact storytelling.

Looking for high quality free videos?🎥 Introducing: Open Planet! 🧪🌍

A rich free-to-use video library to help storytellers create impactful content for our planet.

Find world-class footage to tell your stories about #biodiversity & nature ⤵️🌿

openplanet.org #ForNature

📢 WEBINAR 📢

Join our free #NewSpecies webinar on Thursday 3rd April at 5pm BST!

We'll be chatting with four expert voices from the world of #freshwater, all researchers involved in the discoveries and descriptions of #NewSpecies2024

Register here👇
buff.ly/oFyNC0P

Scaling Nature‐Based Solutions for Fluvial Floods: A Worldwide Systematic Review Studying nature-based solutions ability to mitigate fluvial floods and provide co-benefits by systematically reviewing 131 papers, with 1076 case studies, and grouping them based on Ecosystem Focus T....

New review paper out on fluvial flood reduction 🌊 from nature-based solutions (NBS) 🏞 🌳led by Marina Howarth w/ Alfonso Mejía & @drericasmithwick.bsky.social

#flooding #ecosystemservices #naturebasedsolutions

wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Hold your noses and check out the Watershed Pollution Map to see where untreated poop was dumped into rivers, lakes and seas near you, for a record 3.61 million hours last year...

watershedinvestigations.com/home/find-ou...

💌 Our next monthly newsletter will be landing in your email inboxes soon!

Sign up now to stay in the loop with our work, the latest updates in #freshwater conservation and more 🐟

#JoinTheShoal: buff.ly/yh7ICxa

@jjopperman.bsky.social

Map of global lake distribution, colored by the number of SWOT overpasses per 21 day cycle. There are many lakes with a high number of SWOT overpasses at high northern latitudes, but there are also tens of thousands to more than a million lakes on every continent. Lakes are graphed by latitude and longitude on the edges of the figure.

Do you work on lakes globally? Check out what is, to my mind, the most complete global database of lakes (~6M) and associated attributes, newly published in WRR. Also the basis for SWOT lake data. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

A photograph of the Mekong river at sunrise.

🌊 Take a moment this International #DayofAction2025 for Rivers to celebrate the lifelines of our planet

Head to our website to learn more about the challenges faced by our rivers and the species that call them home 👇
buff.ly/HPIoUHD

#OurRiversOurFuture #RightsofRivers #DoA2025

The latest water quality assessments for Welsh rivers have been published by Natural Resources Wales.

Sadly, they indicate the extent to which targets for 2027 will be missed.

Overall, there has been no change in the % of waterbodies achieving good status since 2021 (40%).

1/5

Home - River Action: River Rescue Kit Take action for your river now Every passing moment sees our rivers under siege from pollution. They deserve better. Explore the resources below to find out how you can take action. Explore the river ...

Calling river-lovers everywhere: today the River Rescue Kit is released by River Action.
It's a properly brilliant resource:
* training on water testing
* legal rights
* campaigning advice
* fundraising guides
* much more
Get stuck in; turn passion into action.
Pass it on!
kit.riveractionuk.com

Phoebe wearing a white fluffy jacket (it’s night time, it is clearly very cold) is holding a gorgeous fish in front of her. It is mottled yellow and black and has a long tail and has inspired many folk names.

Hi #fishsky - calling all fans of the fish Lota lota or #burbot. What common names do you know for this species (in any language) and why is it called that? I have heard some very funny common names in US English and German for the species and would LOVE to know some more! #fishtaxonomy

Women's History Month - Wangari Maathai - Manchester University Press To mark Women’s History Month and the publication of her new book Wildly different, we asked historian Sarah Lonsdale to profile the five pioneering women she focuses on, bringing their fascinating st...

It's 20 years since Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize. Who was this woman who almost didn't go to school at all, who planted 30 million trees and who made a president so afraid of her he had her arrested, and attacked? Read about her here: #IWM
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/03...

FRESHWATER NEWS | March 2025 24 per cent of freshwater species threatened with extinction ~ River fish depend on “messy” nurseries ~ Marine fish conquer the Panama Canal...

The new issue of our FRESHWATER NEWS provides compact information on the decline of #species, ideal amphibian #ponds, 'messy' nurseries for river #fish, Europe's water resilience strategy and much more. Voices and results from the latest #freshwater #research 👇 sh1.sendinblue.com/ajy1jz5jlxpf...

This is a very good explainer of why sediment is a big problem for #dams.

@jjopperman.bsky.social @wwf-water.bsky.social

People need freshwater biodiversity Freshwater biodiversity (i.e., plants, animals, fungi, microbes, and other living things) provides a suite of critical ecosystem services to people. Collapses in freshwater biodiversity impact people...

It's #WorldWildlifeDay so a good moment to remind everyone that there are rather a lot of wild plants & animals living in, on & next to #rivers, #lakes & #wetlands.

And all that #freshwater wildlife is also good for people:
wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Sign a petition urging the government not to drop the proposed and much-needed Chalk Stream Recovery Strategy: buff.ly/4iiak1L

🚨 NEW SPECIES 2024 🚨

This #WorldWildlifeDay we release our annual New Species report, detailing the incredible 260 species of freshwater fish identified in 2024.

Read the report here 👇
buff.ly/yfTuvlq

🎉 Positive River News!

As February comes to a close, let's send it off with some uplifting stories. We have the return of wild beavers, stunning river-inspired art, and a community transforming a tough situation into a story of hope.

🧵

I particularly like the focus on learning from other countries' experiences. The UK #water scene has been too introspective (or exceptionalist) for too long.

‘People’s commission’ to examine future of water industry in England and Wales Inquiry set up by academics and campaigners to rival ‘too limited’ government-established commission

An excellent idea, this, providing there is a clear plan for using the results to influence official government policy.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...