The challenges of conserving freshwater fish species are daunting, Aquatic
ecosystems are poorly understood, relatively unmanageable, shared by multip
le users and highly vulnerable to human interventions. The 'cocktail of thr
eats' to freshwater fish includes, dams, pollution, interbasin transfers, a
lien introductions, all mainly due to a burgeoning global human population.
Worldwide, freshwater fish species (which make up 25% of the world's verte
brates whilst occurring in only 0.01% of the Blue Planet's water) are being
threatened. High extinction rates are forecast and yet even in educated ci
rcles there is a "So what?" attitude to this crisis. In this paper we discu
ss what is happening to the freshwater fish faunas of the globe and why, bu
r more importantly what should be done and how. There are several options i
ncluding a cyberspace route, For surely it is time for the global village t
o focus on fresh water - the reason our planet is habitable.