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Our latest research from the @TSR_Hub is now available online early in #PacificConservationBiology: “Big trouble for little fish: identifying Australian freshwater fishes in imminent risk of extinction.” https://www.publish.csiro.au/pc/PC19053 @CSIROPublishing 1/10
This work was expertly led by Assoc Prof Mark Lintermans from @UC_CAWS, & co-authored by several researchers & freshwater fish ecologists from >10 Australian institutions 2/10
Despite evidence of catastrophic declines, Australian freshwater fishes have typically been neglected in conservation planning, with few species listed under federal legislation 3/10
We aimed to help redress this by identifying the Australian freshwater fishes in imminent risk of extinction, and by identifying ongoing policy and management needs 4/10
We used structured expert elicitation to estimate the probability of extinction (in the next two decades), and to identify key threats and management needs for 22 species considered to be of high risk by the @AustSocFishBiol 5/10
Of the 22 species considered, 12 had been formally described in the last decade, with seven awaiting description. Only 3 species were listed as threatened under the #EPBC Act as of November 2019 6/10
Collation & analysis of expert opinion indicated that 20 of the 22 species are at high risk of extinction (>50%) by 2040, with these species comprising mostly of narrow-range #galaxiids. No taxon was estimated to have a probability of extinction <40% 7/10
While research has provided some direction on how to manage the threats (notably #introducedspecies, #fire, #climatechange), there is little understanding on how to manage most of them effectively – virtually none are at the stage where intervention is no longer required 8/10
The probability of further #extinctions of Australian freshwater fishes is extraordinarily and unacceptably high. Only urgent action, enhanced policy & increased community awareness will prevent this from happening 9/10
Note that our assessment preceded the 2019-20 bushfires in Australia, which are likely to have severely worsened the conservation outlook for many freshwater fishes https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/05/freshwater-hell-scientists-race-save-endangered-fish--bushfire-ash-stocky-galaxias 10/10
