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I study fish, and the Congo River is the richest place for fishes
in all of Africa; and I study a particular part – the lower Congo
from Pool Malebo down to the Atlantic Ocean where rapids
have generated the most extraordinary species diversity. Down
here, in this part of Congo, there have never been gorillas, and
certainly never will be gorillas, but the fish, in a very strange
way, totally depend on the gorillas, because the fish depend on
the forest … Whatever happens on land ultimately ends up in
the river, and then it ends up going out to sea. So there is this
great chain of connection between the great forests of central
Africa, where the gorillas live, and the rivers of Africa, and ul-
timately the coasts and the inshore marine life of Africa where
the inshore marine fishery is so important for feeding the peo-
ple. You are going to lose that too. So for me, the gorilla, apart
from being just the most gorgeous, wonderful animal and our
very close relative, is, if you like, protecting the forest. If we
can protect the gorilla, we can protect the forest. If we protect
the forest, we can protect the rivers. If we protect the rivers, we
can protect the fish. And if we protect all of that, we protect the
people. So it’s all kind of wound in together and as an ichthy-
ologist, I totally support saving the gorillas, for the fish, for the
people, for everything.
Dr. Melanie Stiassny
Curator of Fishes at the American Museum of
Natural History in New York
INTERVIEW
“
If we can protect the gorilla,
we can protect the forest
”