Hula bream

Drainage of lake and wetland led to extinction of fauna

The wetlands surrounding the 20 square kilometer Hula Lake (also known as Hula Lake, Chula Lake) in Israel were artificially drained in the 1950s to create agricultural land. Within a few years, the endemic fauna of the lake – including the carp fish Hula bream – died out.

Three years after the founding of the state of Israel, in 1951, the draining of the Hula Swamp and Lake began to generate farmland. These drainage works covered an area of about 60 square kilometers and continued until 1958.

During this process, the Jordan River was widened and deepened downstream, and two new channels were dug to divert the Jordan in the north of the Hula Valley. The drainage of Hula Lake led to its increasing marshiness, as the lake was generally shallow.

It quickly became apparent that converting wetland into agricultural land did not only have positive effects, as it impacted the number and size of aquatic ecosystems in the Hula Valley. However, initial efforts ignored potential negative consequences and focused on reducing malaria mosquitoes and increasing agricultural productivity.

Not just conservationists, but also scientists advocated for preserving part of the original water area. Thus, in 1964, the Hula Nature Reserve (Agamon Hula) was established in the last section of Hula Lake and the drained swamp areas in the Hula Valley. Today, this reserve is of great importance as a resting place for migratory birds.

Besides the Hula bream, at least one more fish species, the cichlid Tristramella intermedia, went extinct due to the drainage of Hula Lake. However, there is also good news: In 2011, a worker at the nature reserve rediscovered the Hula painted frog (Latonia nigriventer), thought extinct since 1955, which also suffered from the destruction of its habitat.

Hula bream – Fact sheet

Scientific name	Acanthobrama hulensis, Mirogrex hulensis, Mirogrex terraesanctae hulensis, Alburnus sellal, Mirogrex terrae-sanctae hulensis
Original range	Lake Hula (Israel)
Date of extinction	1975
Causes of extinction	Habitat loss due to draining of lake and swamp

Lifestyle of the Hula bream largely unstudied

Not much is known about the extinct freshwater fish, the Hula bream. It is said that the species resembled a sardine in appearance, which is why, in the culinary context in Israel, fishes of this genus are often also referred to as sardines.

Biologists Friedhelm Krupp and Wolfgang Schneider identified and described 25 fish species from the Jordan River Drainage Basin and Azraq Oasis in 1989, including the Hula bream.

The species reached a length of about 23 centimeters and fed on mollusks and other organisms at the bottom of the water. Specimens of the fish preserved in alcohol display a brown-gray coloration and are slightly darker in the belly area.

Israeli ichthyologist Menachem Goren initially described the Hula bream as a subspecies of the Kinnerat bream (Acanthobrama terrasanctae). However, significant differences in appearance between the species justify considering the Hula bream as a distinct species.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that the carp fish, the Hula bream, restricted to Hula Lake in northern Israel, was last sighted in 1975.