Overview
- The UN Convention on Migratory Species released a new assessment that finds migratory freshwater fish are falling fast worldwide.
- The review uses IUCN data for nearly 15,000 species and names 325 priorities that countries could list for joint management under CMS.
- Most candidate species are in Asia at about 205, with 55 in South America, 50 in Europe, 32 in North America, and 6 in Oceania.
- The report identifies dams, broken river habitats, pollution, and overfishing as the main causes of the decline.
- Because freshwater fish are the main protein for over 200 million people, the report urges joint action in shared basins like the Amazon, La Plata–Paraná, Mekong, Nile, Ganges–Brahmaputra, and Danube.