Falklands Conservation

Thousands of Local Trout Found Dead

Hundreds, ‘if not thousands’ of local Zebra Trout have been discovered dead at Swan Pond, Cape Dolphin, East Falkland. The cause of death has not yet been established.

Some of the dead Zebra Trout found at Swan Pond.
Photo: Vlad Laptikhovsky

The Zebra Trout (Aplochiton zebra) is one of two explicitly freshwater native Falkland fish. It was first described by Charles Darwin, whose collected specimens are still to be found in the Natural History Museum in London. It is widely distributed in Patagonian South America. Very little is known about its life history, but is thought that they spend their early life at sea, though there are Falkland populations in land locked ponds which must spend their entire life cycle in freshwater.

Numbers of Zebra Trout have declined severely and the species is now cause for conservation concern if not crisis. It has suffered severely from the introduction of the European Brown Trout, and does not co-exist in waters where the Brown Trout is found. In the Falklands it is now restricted to a few lakes and ponds, the most important of which is Lake Sulivan.

The dead fish were discovered by Vlad Laptikhovsky, whilst camping with his family over the weekend 5-6 March. Visiting the nearby gentoo penguin colony, he found the lee shore of Swan Pond (where black necked swans live) covered by the dead fish. Landlocked ponds such as this may be the only places safe for survival of Zebra Trout, where brown trout are not able to spread from a connecting river system.

Bob Mcdowall, who conducted a survey of Zebra Trout in 1999, recalls an incident ‘when lots of zebra trout were washed up on the lee shore of Red Pond at Port Howard. A really strong wind would be enough to shift the water to the leeward side and the waves wash some of the fish into the vegetation’. There may be some more sinister cause however. Vlad, who works at the Falkland Island Government Fisheries Department, is investigating the cause of death. Falklands Conservation awaits the results with interest and concern.

Click here for further information on the zebra trout and survey report

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