Clarias Monsembulai, is the new catfish species recently discovered in the Congo River. This medium-sized specimen is named after its finder, Dr. Raoul Monsembula, professor of biology at the University of Kinshasa and regional coordinator of Greenpeace in Central Africa. This new species of catfish has been added to the large family of thousands of species already referenced in the Congo basin.
La nouvelle espèce de poisson-chat découverte par l’équipe du docteur Monsembula est un spécimen de taille moyenne, de couleur marron. Avec toutes ces caractéristiques et ses grandes moustaches, Clarias Monsembulai rejoint d’office la famille des poissons-chats. Pour le docteur Raoul Monsembula, cette découverte n’est pas une première. A l’en croire, il avait déjà documenté de nouvelles espèces de poissons dans cette région, mais celle-ci a un goût bien particulier puisqu’elle porte son nom.
“It often happens to us to find strange things”, confides Dr. Monsembula, far from imagining that one day it would be a discovery after having brought back with his team, the new specimen of a river of the park of Salonga.
“It wasn’t until we got to New York and there was a real fuss about this fish that I realized it was indeed a new species,” says the Greenpeace member and biology professor.
Protecting the Congo Basin to preserve cultural identity is imperative
The Congo Basin is a region with more than 10,000 plant species, 400 mammal species, 1,000 bird species and 1,250 fish species. For Dr. Raoul Monsembula, it is urgent to protect this place.
“What is true is that there are many endemic species in the fresh waters of the Congo basin. We have to keep this ecosystem intact, because the more we destroy it, the more we lose our identity, our culture. These species are part of our diet and many people live from them. The destruction of peatlands and forests due to mining and oil exploitation, which do not benefit the people, causes a huge loss.
The Congo Basin is the watershed of the Congo River in Africa. It covers 4 million km² where 93.2 million people live, with very different densities in different areas.
