Thousands of fish species are facing a “catastrophic” decline – threatening 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 now the disappearance of the face.
According to a report released Tuesday by 16 global conservation groups, 18,075 species of freshwater fish live in our oceans, accounting for more than half of the world’s total fish species and a quarter of all vertebrates on Earth. This biodiversity it is essential for maintaining not only the health of the planet, but also 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 source of protein, the researchers said in a report in The World’s Forgotten Fishes. About a third of these people also rely on them for their jobs and livelihoods.
Despite their importance, freshwater fish are “undervalued and overlooked,” the researchers said – and now the biodiversity of freshwater is twice as high as that of oceans and forests.
Eighty freshwater species have already been declared extinct – 16 of them by 2020 alone.
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“Nowhere is the world’s natural crisis more acute than in our rivers, lakes and wetlands, and the clearest indicator of the damage we are doing is the rapid decline of freshwater fish populations. These are the aquatic version of the coal mine canary, and we need to heed the warning, “said Stuart Orr of the World Wildlife Fund.” Despite their importance to local communities and indigenous peoples around the world, freshwater fish are invariably forgotten. and are not taken into account in development decisions on hydropower dams or water use or construction on floodplains. “
Migratory species have declined by more than three quarters in the last 50 years, while populations of larger species, known as “megafish”, have fallen by a “catastrophic” 94%.
Freshwater ecosystems face a devastating combination of threats – including habitat destruction, hydropower dams, overloading irrigation water, various types of pollution, overfishing, the introduction of invasive species and ongoing climate change.
Organizations, including the Global Wildlife Fund, the 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 – eliminating the damage caused by overfishing.
“Freshwater fish are important for human health and the freshwater ecosystems on which all people and all life on land depend,” Orr said. “It’s time to remember that.”