As someone who lives close to the Berg River and fishes it a lot for carp and bass, it was extremely exciting to hear about a new project to reintroduce Witvis (Barbus andrewi) back into the Berg. One of the main arterial rivers running through both farmland and industrial areas of the Western Cape of South Africa, the Berg has had its issues with pollution over the years.

Also known as the Berg-Breede Witvis / White Fish / Cape White Fish, this yellowfish-cousin is endemic to the Berg and Breede River systems, but it’s been under threat for some time now. Very few still occur naturally in the Breede River system and they were declared extinct from the Berg River in mid 1990’s. Hopefully, the Bringing Back the Witvis project driven by the Freshwater Research Centre and their sponsors and partners are going to change this.

Most people have never heard of a Witvis, never mind having caught one. But those who know where to find them regularly take them on fly. I have a soft spot for the Berg, having cut my fly fishing teeth on it. I now live a stone’s throw away and regularly walk my dog along its banks.

I remember reading and hearing stories about the Witvis of the past and while I have tried looking for them in the Berg and Breede’s various tributaries over the years, more often than not I got sidetracked by the attentions of bass and trout. Witvis were considered pests back when they were abundant. Then foreign species like trout and smallmouth bass were introduced as sport fish, which (along with water pollution from the towns and farms that the river flows through now), decimated the witvis population. Smallmouth bass in particular have a massive impact on indigenous species in the Western Cape where they thrive.

About a week or two back, I was lucky enough to represent The Mission at the first stage of the reintroduction of Witvis back into the Berg River and I got to witness the collection, transportation, tagging and release of these special fish back into the Berg River.

The project is funded by the Table Mountain Fund and Boschendal who have partnered with Cape Nature, Fynbos Fish Trust, Freshwater Films, Ford Wildlife Foundation, The Western Cape Government and Babylonstoren. It was good to meet the team behind this project lead by Jeremy Shelton – Researcher and Dean Impson with , Cecilia Cerrilla – PhD Candidate in the photo above, working on the project.

Jeremy and Cecelia gave us a great introduction to the project and an outline of the day’s proceedings. We all travelled in sponsored Ford 4 x 4 vehicles to a local dam to collect Witvis in net traps while another team went to another dam to collect more fish. It’s brilliant that farmers and scientists have had the foresight to save and breed Witvis in these local dams in order to make a project like this possible. The team has been hard at work transferring this brood stock to smaller catchments close to the Berg River for phased reintroduction.

For Ranger bakkies boet! A smooth ride for all involved.

Prepping buckets and air pumps for the Witvis collection and transportation.

Checking the nets to see how many Witvis were caught.

A healthy ecosystem showed that the fish seemed well-fed and fat during their time in the dam, and there were signs of breeding having taken place. A couple of platanna fogs (African Clawed frogs – Xenopus laevis) were found in the nets along with crabs and of course, Witvis.

We moved around the dam collecting fish from a number of nets.

Once all the fish were collected and put into transport buckets we headed off to the Berg River.

At the Berg River we met up with the other team marshalled by Dean Impson, a lead scientist at the Freshwater Research Center who had spent the morning collecting a number of Witvis from another dam. We had a further briefing about the objectives and process that goes into tagging and releasing Witvis back into the Berg River.

The bigger Witvis were anaesthetised to calm them down before Dean did the honours of measuring and inserting tags that can be read by a specific tag reader.

The excitement was very high as different members of the group released the smaller tagged Witvis back into the Berg River.

This historic step was just the first phase of the reintroduction process with another much bigger Witvis release set to happen in the near future. Watch this space for Stage 2.

Obviously the main goal is for these fish to take to and populate the Berg River, so if you or anyone you know manages to spot a witvis, any sighting should be reported to the Freshwater Research Centre. I will be keeping an eye out for them for sure.

Who knows? If all goes well, maybe one day the Berg will offer viable fly fishing for indigenous species, just an hour’s drive from Cape Town.