In an extinction scenario that might have been concocted by Douglas Adams or a taxonomically minded Kafka, a classification error has allowed fishermen to drive a species of skate to near oblivion.
If it vanishes, the flapper skate will be the first fish officially exterminated by commercial pressures — and for the last 83 years, it wasn't even considered a species.
Biologist R.S. Clark declared in 1926 that the flapper skate, formally known as Dipturis intermedia, and the blue skate, or Dipturus flossada, were actually the same animal. His classification was widely accepted, and the two species were lumped together as the common skate.
But when French Museum of Natural History biologist Samuel Iglesias decided to review Clark's assessment, he noticed that common skates often look quite different. Genetic analysis backed up his suspicions: Clark was wrong.
The flapper skate and blue skate really are different species. And that means trouble, because overfishing had already pushed the common skate to critically endangered status — a prognosis that now seems optimistic.
Instead, continued reports of rare common-skate catches have obscured the flapper skate's even-nearer-total collapse. According to Iglesias, whose analysis will be published in an upcoming issue of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, immediate action is necessary to save the flapper skate.
Otherwise it will go extinct, soon — and if it weren't for Iglesias, nobody would have known.
Image: Flickr/DanCentury
See Also:
- Saving Fish is Possible, Unless They're Past the Tipping Point
- Hacking Salmon's Mental Compass to Save Endangered Fish
- Climate Change Caused Radical North Sea Shift
Citation: "Taxonomic confusion and market mislabeling of threatened skates: important consequences for their conservation status." By Iglésias S.P., Toulhoat L., Sellos D.Y. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems*, in press.*
Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecosystem and planetary tipping points.
