Nirah

Published June 3rd, 2007 in fish, water, wildlife

Nirah is a new proposed “freshwater sanctuary” near Bedford. The overall concept is very appealing, although I haven’t quite made up my mind about it yet. It looks Eden Projecty, but a bit more commercial (with the water rides and 4D cinema stuck on). It’s definitely a good idea to have a centre dedicated to freshwater, and it actually surprised me to learn that this is the first (as an aside, I don’t really know about fish genetics, but I wonder how if this will have an effect on genetic diversity of the Nirah populations?).

There are a number of defensive FAQs on the site, but this mainly seems to be in response to a “Say no to Nirah” campaign, of the “all zoos are bad” vein. While I’d prefer Nirah not to take animals from the wild, people need to realise that while habitat conservation is extremely important, it is also very complex and often too risky to be used as a single strategy. This is particularly true for huge interlinked freshwater systems - it’s not like you can put a fence round them. Not to mention that human interest will always win when it’s a question of drinking water supply versus river levels.

I’d like to hear more about their research plans - and hope they stick to the ‘non-invasive’ policy.

Anyway, something to watch out for =) E. O. Wilson is the patron, so that’s a good sign =D