Endangered
At very high risk in the wild. 8 fish on EveryFish so far.
Endangered is the middle of the three IUCN Red List threatened categories. An Endangered species faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild, for example after a fall of 50 per cent or more in numbers over ten years or three generations. Fish listed as Endangered include the whale shark, the giant oceanic manta ray, the humphead wrasse, the golden mahseer and the Japanese eel.
Giants of the sea
The whale shark was moved to Endangered in 2016 after its numbers fell by more than half in the Indo-Pacific, mainly from fishing and collisions with ships. The giant oceanic manta ray, the shortfin mako and the basking shark are also Endangered. The humphead wrasse, a reef giant, has been Endangered since 2004 because of the live reef fish trade. The southern bluefin tuna improved from Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2021 under catch limits.
India's endangered fish
The golden mahseer of Himalayan rivers is Endangered, harmed by dams, sand mining, pollution and poaching. The magur, the native air-breathing catfish of Indian ponds and swamps, was listed as Endangered in 2023 as wetlands were drained and the invasive African catfish spread. The Denison barb of Kerala's hill streams is Endangered after years of collection for the aquarium trade and habitat loss. Hatcheries now breed all three.
Famous endangered fish
Still to be written: Humphead wrasse, Japanese eel, Southern bluefin tuna, Clarias magur, Denison barb.
Further reading
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Desert pupfish: jkirkhart35, CC BY 2.0, source
- Giant oceanic manta ray: jon hanson, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Whale shark: User:Zac Wolf (original), en:User:Stefan (cropping), CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Pupfish: P.V. Loiselle, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Golden mahseer: Khalid Mahmood, CC BY-SA 4.0, source