Surveys show importance of saving endangered species

LSteve Rissing

ast month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature updated its "Red List" of globally threatened and endangered species. The IUCN'S report supports a recent United Nations panel that predicted the loss of one million of the world’s eight million species this century. I discussed that U.N. report here recently.

Earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration discussed how to protect and manage populations of valuable yet vulnerable species.

The secret? Good data and careful science.

The IUCN represents governmental and nongovernmental agencies around the world. National and international agencies such as the World Bank and other land-use planners base their decisions on its research.

IUCN scientists have now assessed the conservation status of more than 100,000 species globally. Its Red List, considered a "Barometer of Life," reveals that 27 percent of those species face possible extinction.

Habitat loss, overhunting and fishing, pollution, and climate change contribute to this growing extinction crisis. For example, more than 40 percent of all monkeys, apes and lemurs in West and Central Africa are threatened by extinction, according to the IUCN.

The IUCN has determined that all but one of 16 species of rhino rays — relatives of sharks with elongated snouts — face likely extinction. Similarly, IUCN reports that more than half of Japan’s and a third of Mexico’s native freshwater fish species face extinction from urban and agricultural pollution and rainfall patterns.

Federal regulations require NOAA to report annually to Congress on the population status of economically important, federally managed, marine fish species. NOAA’S most recent report, released Aug. 2, shows how to rebuild over-exploited populations.

Congress directs NOAA to manage fish species to maximize sustainable yields through population surveys and, when necessary, setting enforceable annual catch limits to allow over-fished populations to recover.

NOAA’S population restoration process can work. Since 2000, NOAA has rebuilt 45 commercially important fish populations to the level of maximum sustainable yield.

The process doesn’t work, however, when factors beyond the reach of enforceable catch limits intrude. Unusually high Pacific Ocean temperatures recently reduced growth and reproduction of Alaskan king crabs. Drought caused by climate change has reduced the flow of freshwater streams in which Chinook and Coho salmon spawn.

According to E&E News, the U.S. seafood industry and commercial and recreational fishing contributes $100 billion to our gross domestic product and supports 1.7 million jobs.

NOAA’S report reveals what it takes to keep populations of any species viable and robust: Good science and an enforceable commitment to preserve populations of native species.

Steve Rissing is a professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at Ohio State University. steverissing@hotmail. com