New listing of threatened status of New Zealand freshwater fish

Consultation closed: 22 May 2009

Submissions about any changes in status of NZ freshwater fish species closed on 22 May 2009. This will inform a revision of the freshwater fish lists in the NZ Threat Classification System.

Simplified version of the current freshwater fish list (XLS, 21K) giving the status of freshwater fish species as listed by Hitchmough 2002.

Background information

In 2002, the Department of Conservation developed a new system for classifying organisms according to their risk of extinction (Molloy et al. 2002).

This system allows the classification of conservation status/risk of extinction of all organisms known to occur in a wild state in New Zealand. Endemics, non-endemic natives, migrants, vagrants, and introduced and naturalised species are all included, as are taxa which have not been formally described.

This is not a priority-setting system in the way that the listing of Molloy & Davis (1992, 1994) was, so does not include information on taxonomic distinctiveness, or on human values.

It is a resource for priority setting, among other functions, rather than a priority list in itself. Two lists of threatened taxa assessed by these criteria have been published (Hitchmough 2002, Hitchmough et al. 2007).

During the course of these listings, opportunities for improvements to the system itself were identified, and as a result a new manual with changed categories and criteria and more explicit procedures has been published (Townsend et al. 2008).

In order to provide the most accurate information, the list is to be fully reviewed and updated every 3 years. The time has come to undertake this process again for freshwater fish, and we now wish to gather data to begin the reclassification of species under the new criteria. We would be very grateful for any submissions providing information on freshwater fish species, subspecies, etc. that you consider to be threatened.

Expert panels will meet to review the classification of New Zealand freshwater fish, on the basis of information supplied.

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