Sept 10-2008:
Bethesda, Md. -

Nearly 40% of North American freshwater fish species are
imperiled, according to a new status report from the American Fisheries
Society (AFS). The first update to the AFS imperiled freshwater species list
in nearly 20 years now includes 700 species, a 92% increase over 1989.
The committee classified each of the 700 fishes on the current list as
either vulnerable (230), threatened (190), or endangered (280). In addition,
61 fishes are presumed extinct.
Only two species were linked to waters in the Boreal Forests of NW Ontario.

Major causes for including species on this list included habitat degradation
(affecting 92% of fishes on the list) and restricted range (72%) for fishes
found in small area or even a single waterbody. Other common listing factors
were overexploitation, disease/parasitism, and problems arising from the
introduction of nonnative species. Three regions with particularly high
numbers of imperiled taxa include the southeastern United States, the
mid-Pacific coast, and the lower Rio Grande and basins in Mexico that do not
drain to the sea.