There are approximately 1,880 species listed under the United States Endangered Species Act. Of these species, approximately 1,310 are found in part or entirely in the U.S. and its waters; the remainder are foreign species. Generally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages land and freshwater species, while the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service manages marine and anadromous species.
There are threatened and endangered aquatic organisms of all types: amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles, fishes, mammals, and plants. The key resources listed below provide information on aquatic organisms in peril.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species catalogues the current status of globally threatened biodiversity and highlights the taxa facing a higher risk of global extinction.
Taxa are evaluated using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to determine the relative risk of extinction. Evaluated species are assigned ranks of Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, or Least Concern.
Not all living things are assessed by the IUCN, but most aquatic organims are included. Some cannot be assessed due to insuffficient information, while others have not yet been databased. Information for plants is especially limited.
Which Aquatic Species are Threatened or Endangered in the United States?
[American Fisheries Society & United States Geological Survey]
The American Fisheries Society (AFS) Endangered Species Committee (ESC) has organized maps and lists of imperiled freshwater organisms of North America. At the Imperiled Freshwater Organisms web site, users can view lists of animals by freshwater ecoregion, by state or province boundary, and plot distributions of these same creatures by ecoregions or political boundaries. At this interactive site, visitors can provide information for consideration by the AFS committees about distributions, status, or threats to listed or proposed taxa on lists.
Focus on Freshwater Fish
The North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA) maintains a list of all North American freshwater fish species that are:
protected or listed by governments as Endangered or Threatened species;
proposed or a candidate for species protection; or
listed in a classification that formally recognizes its increasing rarity and/or vulnerability to imperilment.
The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Office of the U.S. Geological Survey
