Strange species in Southeast Asia becomes the first marine fish species 'extinct due to humans'

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has just declared a mysterious creature in Indonesia to be the first marine fish species to become extinct due to humans.

This recently "man-made extinct" marine fish , with the scientific name Urolophus javanicus , is commonly known as the Java stingray or Java ray .

The news, described by scientists as a "shocking wake-up call", was delivered by the IUCN in the latest update of its Red List - the international version of the IUCN.

Mysterious "monster" found only in Southeast Asia has just been declared extinct by humans - (Photo: BERLIN MUSEUM).

Conservation biologist Julia Constance from Charles Darwin University (Australia) said that this strange species is the size of a dinner plate, first known through a specimen collected at the Jakarta fish market - Indonesia in 1862.

It has remained a mystery ever since.

The Java ray population has long been severely threatened by intensive, sometimes poorly controlled fishing, which led to the decline of the population in the 1870s.

The Java Gulf, where the species was recently declared extinct due to human presence, is an area of ​​heavy industrialization leading to environmental degradation.

These impacts are assessed as "severe enough to cause the extinction of the species".

According to this update, a quarter of all freshwater fish species are now classified as 'endangered ,' with 20% directly affected by climate change.

The Red Book currently contains at least 120 species of marine fish that are at risk of extinction.

In addition to the Java species, the Tasmanian stingray (Zearaja maugeana), dubbed a "living fossil" because of its millions-year-old lineage, is also nearing extinction as altered flows from Atlantic salmon farming near its habitat have pushed its population down to fewer than 1,000.

In addition, a series of freshwater fish are also "precariously" on the brink of extinction according to the current list.

Freshwater fish now account for more than half of the world's known fish species, a puzzling diversity given that freshwater ecosystems make up only 1% of aquatic habitats, said Kathy Hughes, co-chair of the Freshwater Fish Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), in Science Alert .

These diverse species are integral to the ecosystem and are vital to the overall resilience of that ecosystem, which could have serious impacts if they became extinct.