A contract between EPM and the University of Córdoba allows for research in two bands, one in Montería and the other in Caucasia, to conserve endangered species in the middle and lower basins of the river.
The Cauca River is sick, but it is not dead. Professor Víctor Atencio, director of the Fish Research Center (Cinpic) of the University of Córdoba, says it between the lines, who has spent more than 30 years dedicated to a mission: understanding and documenting how freshwater species reproduce in river basins. like the striped catfish, the bocachico, the comelon or the picuda.
The obsession with multiplying river fish in the laboratory is shared: more than 40 researchers accompany him every day to the Cinpic headquarters located on the campus of the University of Córdoba, on the banks of the Sinú River, in Montería.
“We develop technologies to determine where the fish spawn, what are the conditions required for them to spawn and if it is feasible for them to reproduce in certain spaces to mitigate the impacts on natural resources caused by anthropic activities [producidas o modificadas por la actividad humana]”, says the academic.
These anthropic activities that affect the Cauca River range from ancestral knowledge such as fishing or agriculture to others such as extensive livestock farming, large-scale mining or the lack of wastewater treatment in riverside localities.
Touring the Cinpic headquarters in Montería is attending a mixture of hospital and spa exclusively for freshwater fish: there are conical incubators with moving water —simulating the river— for the larvae, black polyshadows that protect the most photosensitive hosts from stress, microalgae cultures for the fish to eat à la carte and even a sperm bank where they keep semen of various species. Something like a luxury nursery for catfish, picudas and cachamas.
Professor Martha Janeth Prieto, for example, is an expert in nutrition and metabolism of fish in all its stages: from when they are larvae, to juveniles, and to adults in their reproductive stage: she is in charge, together with her work team, of designing the diet for the illustrious guests of the laboratory:
“We study and select species of zooplankton and phytoplankton to obtain strains, manage them and produce biomasses to feed the larvae in confinement. Somehow we simulate the ecosystems of the swamps that are the salacunas where the newborn fish feed”. Similar to what lactation is for mammals, but in a microalgae version.
Santa Cruz, the eyes of Cinpic on the banks of Cauca
130 kilometers from the Cinpic headquarters (in Montería) is the Santa Cruz fish farm in Caucasia. There, a group of professionals works hand in hand with Professor Atencio and his team to replicate, on the banks of the Cauca River, the conservation and reproduction techniques of river fish.
Germán David Castañeda, zootechnician and specialist in continental aquaculture, says that the experiments in the fish farm range from studying the physical and chemical characteristics of the water that allow the conservation and maintenance of the larvae in confinement, to achieving the cryopreservation of the semen of some species. native species such as the striped catfish, the blanquillo or the pataló:
“We study everything from diseases of native fish to techniques to prevent cannibalism of some species when they are in the larval phase or how many prey they need to pass that stage, [en la que son más vulnerables] and become fry.
The layout of the space is similar to that of the Cinpic in Montería: conical incubators with moving water that simulates the river, covered ponds where different species grow in controlled environments, and other open-air pools where adult fish that arrived from Cauca are studied.
Among the latter is Eduarda, a 17-pound female striped catfish that was the first of her species to be bred in captivity. She inherited her name from Eduardo, a Caucasia fisherman who brought her to the fish farm for the research project.
“For us it is key to have an ally in Caucasia like the Santa Cruz fish farm because if we start from the fact that we are studying the characteristics of the fish from the Cauca river, it was not possible for us to do it in a remote place, on the banks of the Sinú, which provides other characteristics. ”, explained Professor Atencio.
The scope of the investigation
What is the use of understanding where the fish of the Cauca river migrate and which are the places where they prefer to reproduce? The answer is key if one takes into account that in addition to anthropic activities such as fishing or mining that have been carried out in the river for centuries, there is a recent natural barrier that brought with it the Hidroituango dam.
“What we have found is that most of the reproductive area of the fish is between Puerto Valdivia and San Jacinto (Bolívar), which is the area that needs to be protected the most for the fish. The issue is complex if one takes into account that it is the area with the greatest fishing pressure and the greatest degradation due to mining,” says the director of Cinpic.
Gloria Alexandra Arango, a biologist and part of the EPM environmental and social team at the Ituango hydroelectric plant, explained that although the alliances with Cinpic date back to 2019, the current agreement with the University of Córdoba began in January 2023 and runs until 2026 with a investment of $12,500 million. More than 100 people work there, including members of the riverside communities and researchers from the University of Córdoba.
These resources, said the biologist, will allow the development of conservation actions and compliance with the requirements of the National Agency for Environmental Licenses (ANLA) and with the aspects of ruling T-038 of 2019 that recognized the Cauca river as a subject of rights.
In 2026, once this project is finished, there will be a map with the spawning areas of the native species of the Cauca River. This information includes a journey of more than 500 kilometers from La Pintada (Antioquia) to Pinillos (Bolívar). There will also be a series of protocols for laboratory reproduction of river species and more than 400 fishermen trained in conservation practices. The idea is that the Cauca River improves its prognosis and has a clear recovery path.
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