Vulnerable
At high risk in the wild. 51 fish on EveryFish so far.
Vulnerable is the lowest of the three IUCN Red List categories for threatened species. A Vulnerable species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild, judged by measures such as a fall of 30 per cent or more in numbers over ten years or three generations, or a small and shrinking range. Fish listed as Vulnerable include the great white shark, the ocean sunfish, the Atlantic cod and the silver pomfret.
Big, slow and caught
Many Vulnerable fish are large, slow-growing species that are easily overfished, such as the great white and bull sharks, the reef manta ray and the ocean sunfish, which is caught as bycatch in drift nets and longlines. The Atlantic cod was listed in 1996 after the collapse of its north-west Atlantic stocks. The common carp, invasive in many places, is listed as Vulnerable in its native range in the rivers around the Black and Caspian Seas, where wild populations have declined.
Indian fish at risk
The silver pomfret, Maharashtra's state fish, is listed as Vulnerable, with landings falling along India's west coast. The boal, a large river catfish of South Asia, the spotted seahorse and the mrigal carp of the south are also Vulnerable. The Siamese fighting fish is Vulnerable in the wild in Thailand and nearby countries, though it is bred by the millions for the aquarium trade, which shows how a common pet can be a rare wild animal.
Famous vulnerable fish
Still to be written: Ocean sunfish, Atlantic cod, Reef manta ray, Pampus argenteus, Wallago attu, Siamese fighting fish.
Further reading
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Great white shark: Sharkdiver.com, Public domain, source
- Kaluga: あおもりくま（Aomorikuma）, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bull shark: João D'Andretta, CC BY 4.0, source