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Java stingaree extinct, scientist declare first marine fish extinction due to human activity

The species was first known in 1862 from a fish market in Jakarta.

 Java Stingaree. German naturalist Eduard von Martens found himself in a fish market in the city of Jakarta on the island of Java in 1862.
Java Stingaree. German naturalist Eduard von Martens found himself in a fish market in the city of Jakarta on the island of Java in 1862.

The extinction declaration

The extinction declaration comes after an extensive assessment for of the IUCN Red List by researchers at Charles Darwin University (CDU) in Australia. According to the Head of IUCN Red List Unit Craig Hilton-Taylor, the extinction of this fish was the “first instance of a marine fish species going extinct due to human activities.”

The Java stingaree, hardly a household name, is the first marine fish confirmed to have gone extinct due to human actions. And it took a century and a half for scientists to verify it.

“Extinction is forever, and unless we can secure populations of threatened marine species around the globe, the Java Stingaree will only be the tip of the iceberg,” Julia Constance, a Ph.D. candidate at CDU who led the assessment, told Mongabay in an email.

Julia Constance, the lead assessor and a Ph.D. candidate at Charles Darwin University, stated that intensive and unregulated fishing, coupled with coastal habitat loss and degradation due to industrialization, were the primary factors leading to the extinction.

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