Rare blind fish prompt environmental survey in Anbar’s Haditha

ANBAR — Environment officials have surveyed a cave system at Khasfa, near Haditha, to establish whether rare blind fish still live in its underground waters, after environmental police filmed the fish and the waterway inside the cave.

The Anbar Environment Directorate said the fish are not a new find. Its monitoring teams recorded the species more than two decades ago at Sheikh Hadid, listing them then among rare species needing monitoring and protection because of their limited distribution and the particular nature of their habitat.

A team from the directorate’s Western Region Environment Division travelled to Khasfa with civil defense and local police after meeting the district commissioner, the directorate said. The survey aims to determine whether the fish remain, how widely they are distributed, how many there are and the conditions they live in, and to document the habitat. The site has previously been put forward among areas prioritised for environmental protection. “The results of the field survey will be subject to evaluation and study by specialized teams,” the directorate said, work it said would build a scientific database on the species and establish how to protect them.

Scientific records show the underground waters around Sheikh Hadid have supported two blind cave fish, Garra widdowsoni, the Iraq blind barb, and Caecocypris basimi. Both are classified as critically endangered. The directorate did not say which species its team documented.

The area sits in a depression between hills that also holds the shrine of Sheikh Mohammed Shams al-Din, known as Ajan al-Hadid, with a well and a large cave running toward the far side of Haditha. Sulfurous water extends along Sheikh Hadid Valley, which is known for its sulfur springs.