The Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS) fish data: a georeferenced dataset of freshwater fishes occurring in South Africa

Abstract

Freshwater fishes are recognised as South Africa’s most threatened species group. Reliable, long-term data on fish occurrence records are critical for effectively managing and conserving these species. A comprehensive freshwater fish dataset was compiled and uploaded to the Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS, freshwaterbiodiversity.org), comprising all available records of formally described freshwater fish species occurring in South Africa. An 18-month historic-data collation effort resulted in the accrual of 35 955 new records of freshwater fish from South Africa spanning 194 years (1828–2022), that have since been uploaded to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Together with pre-existing GBIF records (24 861), a total of 60 837 freshwater fish records are thus now available for South Africa. The data show a marked decline in the number of native fish occurrence records over the last decade. Conversely, the number of occurrences for non-native fishes increased over the past three decades. A data breakdown is provided for each of South Africa’s nine provinces including total number of records, and the numbers of native, non-native, endemic and threatened species. These data provide a much-needed update of the known status and distribution of freshwater fishes in the country.