Some 700 species of freshwater fish in North America are in jeopardy, scientists from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada said today. The number represents nearly 40 percent of all freshwater species on the continent and is nearly double the 364 listed as “imperiled” in the previous 1989 study published by the American Fisheries Society. Researchers classified each of the 700 fishes listed as either vulnerable (230), threatened (190), or endangered (280). In addition, 61 fishes are presumed extinct. The new report, published in Fisheries, was conducted by a U.S. Geological Survey-led team of scientists from the United States, Canada and Mexico. “Freshwater fish have continued to decline since the late 1970s" director of the USGS. Groups of fish most at risk are salmon and trout of the Pacific Coast and western mountain regions; minnows, suckers and catfishes throughout the continent; darters in the Southeastern United States; and pupfish, livebearers, and goodeids, a large, native fish family in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Nearly half of the carp and minnow family and the Percidae (family of darters, perches and their relatives) are in jeopardy, the USGS said in a press statement.
