FROM | Oceanographic WRITTEN BY | Rob Hutchins The risk of extinction now being faced by all species of sharks, rays, and chimaeras has increased by almost 20% over the last 50 years, driven primarily – according to a newly developed Red List Index trained on marine life – by overfishing, a direct human impact that has more than halved species populations since 1970.
Deploying the new Red List Index (RLI) tool – one devised to determine the consequences of species extinction for this grouping of fish known as chondrichthyan – researchers have learned that continued overfishing of the largest species in both nearshore and pelagic habitats could wipe out up to 22% of ecological functions. This is the latest research to come out of Simon Fraser University in Canada, where Professor Nicholas K Dulvy has led the development of an aquatic Red List Index (RLI) to determine the risk of extinction for chondrichthyan fish species – an ancient and ecologically diverse group of over 1,199 sharks, rays, and chimaeras – which are all now facing increased threats from human activities. Read the full article online here. Comments are closed.
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