Founder of Mexican Fish Ark dies in UK
John and Susy Pint
Ivan Dibble, the Englishman who saved many of Mexico’s rare fish from extinction,
passed away on Christmas Day, 2009, seated at his computer, working on a new
project to protect another endangered species in Jalisco.
In 1995, Dibble, a fish hobbyist all his life, learned that several fish which
occur only in Mexico (Goodeids, which bear their young alive) had gone extinct
in their native habitat, the Teuchitlán River. Dibble visited the river, which
is located 40 kilometers west of Guadalajara, at the foot of the Guachimontones
archeological site and made a promise to Mexican ichthyologist Arcadio Valdes
that “be it ever so little, I would do all that I could for the species of that
river.”
Fish Ark Mexico
Dibble had, for years, been breeding rare species of Mexican fish in England and
distributing them to fish fanciers worldwide...
|
...In May of 1997, he brought two
species, Skiffia francesae and Zoogoneticus tequila, now extinct in their native
habitats, to a fish lab at the University of Morelia in Michoacán and, with the
staff, started Fish Ark Mexico. He then began to collect money from fish
hobbyists in order to supply the Fish Ark with the equipment and money needed to
keep operating.
The Tequila splitfin or Goodeid, originally
from the Teuchitlan River
|
 |
The Man Who Loved Mexican Fish
Upon learning of the death of Dibble, Dr. Arcadio Valdes said:
“At the last Livebearers’ Symposium, I was asked to present Ivan for his talk. I
introduced him as ‘a man driven, always in command, always stubborn, always
concerned about the future of livebearers, always worried about his Goodeids and
therefore very hard and difficult to understand, but at the same time a very
warm and caring person.’ All of this was needed to lead people and to convince
them about the conservation of those then unknown fish and Ivan had those
qualities. No one else has ever been more seriously concerned about the
conservation of Mexican fish and no one has done more than Ivan Dibble.”
Ivan Dibble and the Air Raid
When we contacted Dibble’s sister Yvonne Doyle, she was
brought to tears to learn that people in far-off Mexico respected and
loved her brother. “Fish were Ivan’s life,” she then commented. “I would like to
share with you an anecdote told to me by my mother,” she went on. “This incident
took place during the war, right in the middle of an air raid. On top of that,
there was a thunderstorm in progress at the very same time. In all that noise
and confusion, my mother discovered that little Ivan had gone missing. He
couldn’t have been more than five or six at the time. Of course, my mother was
distraught and to make matters worse, my father was far away, fighting in the
war. Well, my mother and our relatives and friends searched everywhere for my
brother and finally found Ivan, oblivious to everything, fishing under a
bridge.”
Dibble’s interest in fish never wavered and in the 1970’s he became particularly
interested in viviparous fish, which he began to breed and to distribute to
collectors everywhere.
The Ameca Project is born
In recent years, Ivan Dibble learned that Ameca splendens, a particularly
beautiful livebearing fish thought to have gone extinct, had been found in
spring-fed pools at restaurants on Lake La Vega. Ever a man of action, even
though he could hardly walk, Ivan phoned us from England, suggesting we look for
a small pool somewhere in the vicinity of the Teuchitlán River where Ameca
splendens (also known as the Butterfly Goodeid) could be bred in its native
environment, but safe from pollution and introduced species (such as tilapia, an
African fish that is replacing Mexican species all over the country).
