HIRAKATA, Osaka Pref. -- Children and teachers from 42 elementary and junior high schools in Osaka Prefecture learned the importance of clean water through a study of the Japanese killifish at a lecture held here Monday by the prefectural government and freshwater fish experimental station.

The lecture, the first of its kind, was organized to give children an opportunity to learn about the kind of environment in which killifish can live and to raise killifish at their schools. It was held at the Osaka Prefecture Civic Center.

Although killifish could be found in any freshwater stream across the country a decade ago, their numbers have dropped with the decline of small streams and water grass, said Toshio Miyashita, chief researcher at the station.

Japanese killifish were designated as an endangered species by the Environment Agency in February.

After Miyashita explained why killifish have become scarce, how they live and how to raise them, 30 killifish and three kinds of water grass were given to children from each school. Station officials caught about 50 killifish from the Yodo River and bred them to increase their numbers to about 3,000.

Miyashita said killifish are a symbol of a healthy and rich water environment because their presence indicates the existence of many other kinds of creatures below them in the food chain.