The Impact of Habitat changes on the Mesopotamian Marshlands Fishery from 2003 to 2018

Abstract

This article demonstrates how deliberate and unintended interventions can have a disastrous impact on a once flourishing ecosystem. Iraq’s southern marshlands were historically the richest inland fishing ground in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. During the 1960s, fish catches in the marshes consisted of only native species, but decisions by the government to drain the marshlands in the 1990s had cataclysmic results. By 2006, fish catches were largely exotic species. In 2018, the catches in all three marshes were dominated by exotic tilapia and carp species and one of the three marshes was shifting from a freshwater to an estuarine ecosystem. Some native species are dangerously dwindling in number, and others have disappeared entirely. Key reasons for the change include the introduction and spread of exotic species, deterioration of water quality and quantity due to upstream withdrawals, and illegal fishing methods. Many native fish species were rare or very rare in 2018, although they had been fished frequently in 2006, especially in Huwaizah and central marshes. East Hammar marsh differs from the other two for the presence of four migratory marine species that were not seen in 2006 and were becoming very common in 2018.