Heavily poached sturgeon slip toward extinction

[UngulateNerd92]

Two-thirds of species now critically endangered and one confirmed extinct

Sturgeon and paddlefish—freshwater fish that have existed for hundreds of millions of years—now face extinction due mainly to the illegal trade in wild-caught caviar and meat. The world’s first comprehensive assessment of the species in over 13 years, released today by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), confirmed that all 26 remaining species are now threatened with extinction.

The new assessment highlights that almost two-thirds of sturgeon and paddlefish species are now critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species—making them among the world’s most threatened species. The assessment also officially declares the extinction of the Chinese paddlefish, the extinction in the wild of the Yangtze sturgeon, and the regional extinction of ship sturgeon in the Danube.

Heavily poached sturgeon slip toward extinction

 

[carl the birder]

how manyy Yangtze sturgeon are in captivety ?

 

[UngulateNerd92]

how manyy Yangtze sturgeon are in captivety ?

I don't know the answer, but that is a great question and one I was curious about myself. Let's look into it.

 

[enantiornithines]

It's a tremendous shame about the Chinese paddlefish. It's also weird to have it confirmed officially even though I have been certainly were extinct since I learned about their existence shortly after I discovered the existence of the American paddlefish, which was also after the baiji was declared extinct for similar reasons.

Also it's weird because I was having a conversation with a woman in Shreveport aquarium about it on Tuesday.

Her: (Talking about American paddlefish.) "They're one of my favorite fish."
Me: "Me too, but shame about the Chinese paddlefish."
Her: "I didn't even know those existed, are they extinct?"
Me: "Last I checked they were listed as critically endangered, but it's China and there hasn't been one seen for decades, so..."
I forget the exact words, but I then went on to use this as an example of why the IUCN not factoring in captive populations kind of bothers me, because unlike the American paddlefish there are no living Chinese paddlefish in captivity, and same for all the Aral Sea sturgeon AFAIK. We had a conversation about that where she brought up axolotls and I brought up the ginkgo tree as organisms that are critically endangered in the wild but far more secure than many organisms at lower levels of threat.

Anyways, couple days later, they are declared extinct officially.