The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) uses its Red List to categorize animal species that are threatened with extinction. This year, the union is raising alarm about the dugong, a docile and large marine mammal that lives along the eastern coast of Africa to the western Pacific Ocean.
IUCN stated that populations in East Africa have been included in the red list as critically endangered, while the dugong is at risk in all areas it inhabits. The organization also mentioned that populations in New Caledonia have been added to the list as endangered.
Evan Trotzuk, the leader of the East Africa red list assessment, stated that the animal also endures boat crashes and the depletion of the seagrasses it consumes. According to the IUCN, the primary dangers to this species include accidental entanglement in fishing equipment in East Africa and illegal hunting in New Caledonia.
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Trotzuk stated that in East Africa, where marine ecosystems are crucial to the food security and livelihoods of the people, it is essential to enhance community-driven fisheries governance and broaden employment prospects beyond fishing.
Species, like in the situation of the North Atlantic right whale, occasionally intersects with the species mentioned under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, on the IUCN Red List. IUCN affirms that over 42,000 of the species on the red list are at risk of extinction. The IUCN Red List encompasses over 150,000 species.
“From categories like ‘least concern’ to ‘critically endangered,’ IUCN utilizes several classifications. Typically, the red list updates two or three times a year, as per IUCN’s practice. This week’s update includes over 3,000 new additions to the red list, with 700 of them being under threat of extinction.”
According to Jane Smart, the head of the Data and Science Centre at IUCN, political action will be taken to save the endangered species and to serve as a clarion call for the importance of new listings.
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Smart said, “The action that sparks but a little depressing bit is good, and we often give you the gloomy news on this frequently.”
The IUCN stated that more than two dozen critically endangered corals in the Atlantic have been listed this week. The coral population has shrunk by over 80 percent across most of its range since 1990, and it is threatened by disease and tissue loss.
The University of Arizona’s associate professor, Beth Polidoro, is listed as the coordinator for the IUCN Red List, where almost half of the corals are at an elevated risk of extinction due to impacts from climate change.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the emergence of unsustainable poaching and harvesting has posed threats. Out of the twenty-four abalone species listed in the global assessment, fifty-four are considered threatened with extinction. Abalone, which is used as seafood, has faced the emergence of unsustainable poaching and harvesting as threats.
The abalone is facing multiple challenges due to climate change, illnesses, and pollution, according to the organization.
Jon Paul Rodríguez, the chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, stated, “the declining sea sheds new light on multiple interacting threats, bringing an updated list of red evidence in this.”
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