Saturday 11 December 2021
A total of 184 species have been recorded
For the first time, deep sea animals are on the red list
They live in complete darkness and most of them are unknown. However, researchers came to the conclusion that almost 200 species of these deep-sea creatures belong to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Embedding is heresy.
Dozens of species in the deep sea are critically threatened with extinction, researchers said. According to research conducted by Dr Queen’s University Belfast And other international researchers, 184 deep-sea creatures have been placed on the so-called Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the university announced. According to researchers, two thirds of them are severely threatened. They also published in Frontiers in Marine Science.. The authors called for stricter measures to regulate deep-sea mining, for example.
To date, more than 140,000 species of endangered species have been assessed on the Red List. Not all of them are threatened. About 15 percent of recorded species live in the seas. However, according to the authors, almost no animals from the deep sea were found. The list is an important tool for species protection, as it documents the status of some species in a comparable way.
Biodiversity as in a rainforest
In their research, the researchers focused specifically on species that live in so-called hydrothermal springs – just one of many deep-sea ecosystems. The biodiversity in these sources, of which there are about 600 worldwide, is compared to that of a rainforest or coral reef.
Of the 184 species now listed in the Red List, 39 percent are endangered. According to the researchers, organisms are in a bad situation in the Indian Ocean in particular. “This coincides with the awarding of deep-sea mining contracts awarded by the International Seabed Authority, which highlights the risks of mining endangered species and clearly shows why we need this data,” the researchers wrote.
Thanks to preventive measures, 25 of the 184 species examined are not considered endangered, 45 of which are less endangered. However, they are still on the watch’s red list.