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World: Giant Catfish One of 12,000 Species on the 2003 IUCN Red List |
| November 18, 2003 |
One of the world’s largest freshwater fish, the giant catfish, is one species moving closer to extinction, according to the 2003 Red List of Threatened Species. The 2003 List, released today by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), includes other aquatic species: albatrosses, sharks, dolphins, and many more.
The Red List now includes 12,259 species threatened with extinction. A total of 762 plant and animal species are now recorded as extinct with a further 58 known only in cultivation or captivity.
“While we are still only scratching the surface in assessing all known species,” said Achim Steiner, IUCN Director General. “We are confident this figure is an indicator of what is happening to global biological diversity.”
“We now need the political will and resources to stem the loss of biodiversity,” added Achim Steiner. “Human activities may be the main threat to the world’s species but humans can also help them recover.”
This year, 57 species of sharks and rays are listed and a further 19 stocks assessed as threatened. Six species of albatross now face a greater threat of extinction than previously thought. The Mediterranean subpopulation of the short-beaked common dolphin and the Rio Grande do Sul/Uruguay subpopulation of the river dolphin Franciscana enter the list. The Californian black abalone, a marine snail confined to the coastlines of California, and Baja California (Mexico) is now critically endangered.
“We had presumed that marine species do not go extinct, with a few noteable exceptions where the land meets the sea, as in estuaries,” said the Vancouver Aquarium’s Vice President of Marine Science Dr. Jeff Marliave, member of the Marine Fishes Specialist Subcomittee for the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
“It now appears that over-fishing may combine with habitat destruction in coastal areas and on coral reefs,” said Dr. Marliave. “The deadly combination of overexpliotation and habitat loss leads to mass extinctions on land, so we must beware the possibility of mass extinctions at sea.”
The Red List is maintained as a searchable database on its own website: www.iucnredlist.org and is updated every year.
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