The Asprete
A living fossil by some estimates aged over 65 million years, the Asprete might have been contemporary with the last of the dinosaurs to have walked on this earth.
Andrei Togor, Marcus Drimbea | Alex Găvan Foundation
Right now, there are only between 10 to 15 of its kind remaining, according to the last official estimates of the Ministry of Environment.
Andrei Togor, Marcus Drimbea | Alex Găvan Foundation
The Asprete - a monument of nature
The fish has been declared a monument of nature, being listed by the European Commission in Annex 2 of Directive 92/43/CEE as a community interest species, and is present on the critically endangered list of the Berne Convention of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats in need of strict protection. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also rated it as critically endangered (CR).
But despite all these, mainly because of the destruction of its habitat and the unsustainable way of running the hydroelectric power plants by not letting the proper water flow on the river, but far from exclusively to it, the Asprete is now living the last second of his existence on this Earth.
No man is an island.
And neither the Asprete is.
He can no longer survive by himself.
Alex Găvan | Alex Găvan Foundation
Scientists say that if the proper measures are not right away taken, he will probably be gone within a few years.
Losing the asprete is losing ourselves.
Thus deepening the disconnection to our Mother Earth.
Alex Găvan Foundation
Scientists say that if the proper measures are not taken right away, he will probably be gone within a few years.
Alex Găvan Foundation