More fish endangered now than ever before

In 1989, the American Fisheries Society published its last list of imperiled and endangered freshwater fish. They've just released the update, and the news is not good:

"Of those that were imperiled in 1989, most (89%) are the same or worse in conservation status; only 6% have improved in status, and 5% were delisted for various reasons."

The black "bar of death" is slowly creeping up as well in this graph, with fish species becoming extinct a little faster than estimated, about 9% loss per decade.

Kudos to USGS and AFS for providing both the full article and a lovely interactive map online. Last I visited the sorting function on the lists wasn't working, but it's a great way to get the know the fishes of your bioregion (hello, woundfin!) and remarkably hi-tech for the government.