Report reveals 25% of freshwater fish at risk of extinction

A new report published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at COP 28 has revealed that 25 percent of the world's freshwater fish are at risk of extinction and an increasing number of other animal species are endangered.

The annual study, entitled the Red LIST, documents the number of species at risk of being wiped out. It doesn't look at all species but does provide a useful snapshot of what's happening in the animal kingdom.

Just over 157,000 species were studied in the first study of its kind, which found that 44,000 of those are now threatened with extinction, a total of 28 percent.

One of the species documented, freshwater fish, has been added to the endangered list. 

It's not going swimmingly for the Atlantic salmon, either, which was moved from the least concerned category to near threatened between 2006 and 2020, its population decreasing by 23 percent. 

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Craig Hilton-Taylor is head of the Red List unit at the IUCN, who compiled this report. He says the loss of freshwater fish could put the lives of humans at risk. "With this update, we've comprehensively assessed all the freshwater fish, so that's about 50,000 species, and a quarter of those are threatened with extinction," he said to CGTN Europe.

"That's not good news for you in terms of our freshwater systems, because the freshwater fish play a vital role in maintaining the functioning and resilience of this freshwater systems. So if we lose those fish, the whole freshwater system will start collapsing and we are completely dependent on freshwater for our own survival. So the future of the fish are closely tied to our own future."

Climate change is a contributing factor to the increasing number of species under threat. The report noted that at least 17 percent of threatened freshwater fish species are affected by climate change, including decreasing water levels, rising sea levels causing seawater to move up rivers, and shifting seasons.  

The IUCN cautions that this compounds threats from pollution, which impacts 57 percent of freshwater fish species at risk of extinction.

Hilton-Taylor says the mix of factors is creating a toxic cocktail for fish. He said: "It's not just climate change, it's other threats as well, particularly of the use of species, loss of habitats, invasive species instead of disease and so on. But often climate change interacts with other threats and makes it worse." 

Hilton-Taylor says it's vital that all species are protected as scientists try to fully understand the exact role different species play in preserving ecosystems. 

"We still don't know exactly what role every species plays in the ecosystem and in the services that we depend upon," he said. "So it's important to really consider that as many of them as possible as we possibly can, because they're all interacting with each other and they all play a vital role in functioning ecosystems. 

"So, you might lose one species and think that doesn't matter, but you could lose a single species and then the whole system collapses. We need to make sure we don't have this collapse, so it's best to then try to conserve everything we have as we possibly can."

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