Dinosaur-Era Fish on Brink of Extinction, Australian Conservationists Say

Australia Thursday marks its National Threatened Species Day, and conservationists are calling for more efforts to save the endangered Maugean skate.  The fish has been around since the dinosaurs but could become the world’s first ray or shark to become extinct in modern times as a direct result of human activity.

The Maugean skate is an ancient fish found in only one place in the world, in Macquarie Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia’s southern island state.

Its habitat covers about 100 square kilometers but its numbers have fallen sharply because of low oxygen levels and poor water quality.  It is estimated that the Maugean skate population has decreased from around 3,000 to 1,500 in recent years.

Macquarie Harbour has increasingly become industrialized with salmon farming and hydroelectricity generation.  It has a narrow, shallow entrance and is not regularly flushed out by water from the open ocean.

Alexia Wellbelove is the threatened species campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society.  She told VOA that waste from salmon farming is causing degradation in the area.

“That fish waste is causing oxygen from the harbor to be depleted, and so the Maugean skate has less and less habitat available to it, and when it lays its eggs in the muddy bottom, those eggs just aren’t getting the oxygen they need to turn into live young.  This is reaching a critical point.  We need to figure out how we can get oxygen into this harbor,” she said.

Skates are flat, rectangular animals that are similar to rays but have a short, thick tail and lay eggs in the mud.

Scientists fear they could become extinct within 10 years or be wiped out by extreme weather.

Wellbelove said Australia needs to do more to protect vulnerable species.

“If we are losing species, it means our oceans and our land is not healthy and we need to be learning how we can do better to have the healthiest possible environments in which we live,” she said.

While the Maugean skate is currently listed as endangered, its conservation status is being reassessed.

Tanya Plibersek, the federal Minister for the environment and water, said in a statement Thursday that the government had “to act fast to bring it back from the brink of extinction.”

The skate is one of 110 species prioritized for recovery under Australia’s Threatened Species Action Plan.  Plibersek also said that the government would invest more than $1.3 million to set up a captive breeding program to help save the Maugean skate.

National Threatened Species Day is held every year in Australia on September 7, the anniversary of the death of the last Tasmanian Tiger in 1936.