From a visit to Euboea's Manikiatis River - Autumn 2025
In the summer of 2022, I inspected the Manikiatis River on Euboea, home of the Evian Barbel—an endemic fish found only on Euboea island, in Central Greece. I have written about this river on this blog before.
What is most remarkable is that back in the summer of 2022 (see the photo above), there was a significant barrier at the bridge immediately next to the village of Manikia. In the autumn of 2025, the story was very different. The two photos above are from the exact same location (hard to believe, I know). On the left are my colleagues in June 2022 beside a waterfall that we assessed as impassable for barbels—the only fish inhabiting this upland stretch of the river. On the right is the condition in October 2025. Trust me: it’s the same place, and now there is no real barrier to the fish anymore! The plunge pool is gone.
So what happened, and is this common?
First, what happened was a storm—a very big one. It moved a huge amount of rock. Storm Daniel, also known as Cyclone Daniel, was an erratic but catastrophic Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone, and the deadliest recorded in the region. It struck Central Greece on September 4th, 2023. Two years later, the stream is almost unrecognizable.
And what about the fish? Back in the summer of 2022, barbels were much more common below the bridge. Very few were found above it, and the ramp under the bridge of Manika functioned as barrier, a complete block to movement in this small mountain stream. (You might even have considered investing money to fix the problem—it’s a threatened species, severely impacted by anthropogenic barriers such as this one.) This autumn, the barrier was gone. Barbels were present both above and below the former barrier, although overall population density was much lower than in 2022, and very few large individuals were found. Still, the fish survived the storm.
Long live the Evian Barbel (Barbus euboicus)!
Photos from 2022 follow.
