Just Posted: An Introduction to the Freshwater Fishes of British Columbia

 

British Columbia is well-known for the freshwater fish species found in its lakes and rivers, especially the salmon that return to the rivers of their birth each year to spawn. But what do you really know about BC freshwater fish species?  Did you know that we are home to both native and introduced species, or that the glaciers wiped out all of the habitat for fish in BC? What about the oldest known freshwater fish species in BC?

We have just posted the new Introduction to The Freshwater Fishes of British Columbia by fish expert Eric Taylor. In it, Eric talks about these things and more, including the effect of glaciation on our fish species. He says:  "... the Wisconsinan glaciation, one of up to 20 that occurred during the Pleistocene, lasted from about 85,000 to ~11,000 years ago and covered virtually all of BC with ice sheets up to 3 km thick which eliminated all of the habitat for freshwater fishes. Consequently, the current native fish diversity of BC stems almost exclusively from post-glacial immigration of fishes that survived glaciation in ice free areas north, west, east, and south of the ice sheets (known as “glacial refugia”).

Read Eric's new Introduction to the Freshwater Fish of British Columbia and learn more about our 67 native species and 15 introduced species of freshwater fish.