Ichthyological Survey of the Rio Salado, Mexico

Date

1952-01-31

Authors

Guerra, Luciano Val

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Volume Title

Publisher

University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

A survey of the fish fauna of the Rio Salado, which runs through the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila, was selected as a suitable project for a Master's thesis after a thorough search of the scientific literature yielded very little information on the fish fauna of most of the Mexican rivers and none on the Rio Salado system. As an international dam is under construction across the Rio Grande at Falcon, Texas, I decided to make a study of the Rio Salado before introduction of exotic fishes disturbed the native fauna of this little-known stream system. I believe that a study of this nature would be of considerable value to fresh water fisheries work because all of the Mexican fish fauna native to Falcon Lake will come from the Rio Salado and its tributaries. After Falcon Dam is finished, the waters of the Rio Grande and its western tributaries, including the Rio Salado and its tributaries, will be impounded. With this impoundage of the waters, there will be some ecological changes in many of the stream systems concerned. These will be brought about mainly by the introduction of alien fish species into the lake and their subsequent migration into tributary waters, and by the effect of "backed-up" water in the lower Rio Salado and some of its tributaries. It has been the purpose of this work to study the ecological niches before they are changed so that fisheries planning concerning the waters of the lake may be based on sound scientific information and so that the present fauna may be compared with that which occurs after impoundage.

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Citation

Guerra, Luciano Val. 1952. “Ichthyological Survey of the Rio Salado, Mexico.” Master of Arts thesis, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, U.S.A.