#javan stingaree

[todropscience]

The Javan Stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) has become the first species of marine fish declared extinct in modern times. The IUCN has declared the Javan Stingaree extincted after an assessment led by an international team of scientists.

Stingaree are round rays native to the western Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, with 21 species know to science. The Java Stingaree was known only from a single specimen collected in 1862 from a fish market in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the present, the habitat where this species was known to occur, is heavily industrialised, with extensive, long-term habitat loss and degradation. Researchers carried out new ecological models to understand current distribution and tendency to find out the specie is virtually extinct, likely by the intensive and unregulated fishing, and habitat loss.

Photo credit: Edda Aßel, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

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