Swiss native fish in troubled waters
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Loading... - Nathan Price
- 03 May 2023
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More than half of Switzerland's native fish species are threatened with extinction or are already extinct within the country's waters, a new assessment showed Wednesday.
Out of 71 native fish and jawless fish, 34 are under threat of extinction in Swiss waters, like the critically-endangered European eel, and nine are no longer found within Switzerland, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) said.
The study of around 70,000 fish in landlocked Switzerland's rivers and lakes categorized the native species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's criteria, under which threatened and extinct species appear on the Red List.
The update, completed in 2022, is the first since 2007.
Nine native species have had their domestic threat category raised, including the European eel, the stone loach, and the European grayling.
But there was better news for the common carp, the Wels catfish and the telestes muticellus, which saw their threat category drop.
The number of native species assessed has widened from 55 to 71—including five for which there is insufficient data to make a threat conclusion.
However, the number of threatened species is up from 24 to 34. Read More…
