Jeremy M. Shelton I completed undergraduate and honours degrees
in zoology and ecology, and an MSc in conservation biology at
the University of Cape Town. During this time I became
interested in freshwater ecology. Alien invasive predatory fish
are one of the greatest threats to freshwater biodiversity in
South Africa, and much of my research has focussed on the
ecological effects of these fish. As an honours project I
investigated the effect of alien smallmouth bass on the native
fish community in the Witte River in the Western Cape. The
results of that study were shocking, showing that the alien bass
almost completely eliminated once-abundant native fishes from a
stretch of stream. Additional work by Dr Steve Lowe (post-
doctoral associate at the C·I·B) has shown that not only did the
bass decimate native fish populations, but they also had strong
affects at the ecosystem scale, altering aquatic invertebrate
and algal communities severely. My MSc research examined whether
alien largemouth bass alter abundanc