Thousands of fish species are facing a “catastrophic” decline that threatens the health, food security and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people around the world. New research shows that a third of all freshwater fish are now in danger of extinction
According to a report published Tuesday by 16 global conservation groups, 18,075 freshwater fish species inhabit our oceans, accounting for more than half of the world’s total fish species and a quarter of all vertebrates on Earth. This biodiversity is critical to maintaining not only the health of the planet, but the economic prosperity of communities around the world.
About 200 million people in Asia, Africa and South America rely on freshwater fishermen for their main protein source, according to researchers in the report “The World’s Forgotten Fishes.” About a third of those people also rely on them for their jobs and livelihoods.
Despite their importance, freshwater fish are “undervalued and overlooked,” researchers say – and now freshwater biodiversity is declining twice as fast as in oceans and forests.
Eighty freshwater species have already been declared extinct – 16 of them in 2020 alone.
SAKIS MITROLIDIS / AFP via Getty Images
“Nowhere in the world is the wildlife crisis more acute than in our rivers, lakes and wetlands, and the most obvious indicator of the damage we are doing is the rapid decline in freshwater fish populations. They are the aquatic version of the canary in the coal mine,” and we must heed the warning, ”said WWF Stuart Orr. on flood plains. “
Migratory bird species have declined by more than three-quarters over the past 50 years, while populations of larger species, known as “megafish”, have declined by a “catastrophic” 94%.
Freshwater ecosystems face a devastating combination of threats – including habitat destruction, hydropower dams, over-abstraction of water for irrigation, various types of pollution, overfishing, the introduction of invasive species, and ongoing climate change.
Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Global Wildlife Conservation and The Nature Conservancy have now called on governments to implement an “Emergency Recovery Plan” to save freshwater biodiversity. They recommend protecting and restoring rivers, water quality and critical habitats, and undoing the damage from overfishing.
“Freshwater fish are important to human health and the freshwater ecosystems upon which all humans and all life on land depend,” said Orr. “It’s time we remember that.”