What’s new: The number of bony marine fish species at risk of extinction could be five times higher than previously estimated by conservation scientists, a recent study suggests.
What the study says:
- Bony fish, or teleosts, represent some 96% of the world’s marine fish species. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the global reference for assessing extinction risks for wildlife species, currently lists around 13,000 species of marine fish. Of these, roughly 5,000 species, or 40%, are listed as data deficient or not evaluated. This means these species don’t have a formal conservation status, which makes it hard to protect them.
- Using models and machine learning, the recent study predicted the IUCN conservation status of 4,640 data-deficient and unevaluated marine fish: 1,440 of these species were predicted to be threatened, while 2,324 were categorized as non-threatened. This brings the total number of bony marine fish at risk of extinction to 12.7%, five times higher than the IUCN’s past estimate of 2.5%.
- Many of the species predicted to be threatened are in the South China Sea, the Philippine Sea, Celebes Sea, and the west coasts of Australia and North America.
What this means: The study results indicate the need for more complete IUCN Red List assessments of data-deficient and unevaluated species, which can highlight what species and areas need focused conservation and research efforts. Globally, marine fish are under immense human pressures from overfishing, pollution, loss of breeding habitat from dams, and increased water temperatures and ocean acidification from climate change.
New methods of evaluating extinction risk of species, as in this study, could help speed up species risk assessments at lower costs, Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List Unit, told Newsweek. He added that a working committee of the IUCN Red List scientific committee is looking into the use of these new technologies.
Banner image: critically endangered giant sea bass by Caitlin Childs via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).