Dear members,
In this Update:
- NEW NAMES FOR AROWANAS
- MEETING WITH EUS CITES AUTHORITY
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NEW NAMES FOR AROWANAS
In 2003 POUYAUD , SUDARTO & TEUGELS published an article in the scientific journal Cybium splitting up the Asian arowana Scleropagus formusus up into four separate species. The original article can be found here.
The old name Scleropagus formusus is now used for the green arowana, originating from Southern Thailand, Southern Vietnam, Indonesia (Borneo and Sumatra), Malaysia and Cambodia. Scleropagus macrocephalus originates from Central and West Borneo and is also known as Silver Indonesian arowana (redtail and grey tail). The Redtail Golden arowana or Indonesian Golden arowana has been described as Scleropagus aureus is an acid water species (pH below 5.5) and originates from Sumatra in Indonesia. The last one is Scleropagus legendrei that originates from one location in Borneo, Indonesia, Sentarum Lake. Common names for this species, which is quite variable in coloration, are Super Red arowana, and Chili- or Blood Indonesian arowana.
Although the article has been published already in 2003, the new names have not been used widely in our industry. There is, however, a proposal for discussion at the CoP in March 2010 to adopt these names for use in CITES nomenclature. If the proposal is adopted, the names have to be used in CITES permits in future. It will be an interesting discussion what to name crossbreeds of unknown origin.
MEETING WITH EUS CITES AUTHORITY
Last Friday your Secretary general had a meeting with EU CITES authorities. In the last few months new personnel has replaced a large part of the staff of this unit of the European Commission and this was an introduction meeting.
In this meeting it was agreed that OFI could request for background information on decisions made by the European Scientific Review Group (SRG) on listing new species in the European CITES lists. Furthermore we agreed that OFI is available for providing input on species in our industry. OFI has already been invited for a meeting on 18 November on the European input for the CITES CoP in March in Qatar.
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With kind regards,
Alex Ploeg & Roberto Hensen
OFI Secretariat
