Dugongs, peaceful cousins ​​of manatees, and nearly half of abalone shells are threatened with extinction: unveiled Friday in Montreal, the update of the IUCN red list has come to illustrate the urgency of a global agreement to reduce the destructive pressure of human activities on marine environments.

Overfishing, polluting discharges, global warming, water acidification, etc.

: the destructive cocktail, widely documented by scientists, is at the heart of the COP15 Biodiversity negotiations in Montreal.

Delegates from around the world have been meeting there since December 7 to try to finalize by December 19 a new ten-year framework to sign "a pact of peace with nature", agreeing on key objectives to preserve forests. , oceans and species on Earth.

Multiple and urgent objectives

In addition to the key objective of placing 30% of the land and seas under protective status, the negotiators must also agree on reduction targets for pesticides and fertilizers, on the restoration of degraded environments and on the sustainable management of all the resources of life, essential to the survival of humanity.

So many elements illustrated by the new assessments, unveiled Friday in Montreal, of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

One of them concerns the dugong, a large mammal that grazes the seabed with its trunk-like snout in coastal waters.

Its populations in East Africa and New Caledonia are now "critically endangered" and "endangered" by the IUCN.

The whole species remains classified as “vulnerable”, the next lower category.

Its unintentional capture in fishing nets in East Africa and poaching in New Caledonia, as well as injuries from boats, are the main threats.

Not “a desperate apocalyptic catalog”

In East Africa, fossil fuel extraction as well as pollution and unauthorized development on the coasts are also degrading their food source, while in New Caledonia seagrass beds are being damaged by agricultural waste and pollution from nickel mines.

"The ability to slow down and limit the rate of extinction, to buy us time, has been very largely focused on large terrestrial species," IUCN deputy director Stewart Maginnis told AFP.

The Red List, however, is not a hopeless doomsday catalog but a scientifically rigorous tool for targeting conservation action, he argues.

It includes more than 150,000 species, of which more than 42,000 are threatened with extinction.

More than 1,550 assessed marine animals and plants are at risk of extinction, with climate change impacting at least 41% of those threatened.

But, "in fact, we are 30 years behind in effective marine conservation - now let's hope we can catch up," Maginnis acknowledged.

Poaching, discards, climate

The IUCN also announces that 44% (at least 20 out of 54 species) of abalone shells, highly sought-after gastronomic dishes, are also threatened with extinction.

Poaching, particularly in South Africa, but also sea heat waves and polluting discharges are to blame.

These shells are also very sensitive to climate change.

In 2011, a marine heatwave killed 99% of Roe's abalone off Western Australia.

"Abalone reflect humanity's disastrous management of our oceans: overfishing, pollution, disease, habitat loss, algal blooms, warming and acidification, to name a few threats," said Howard Peters of the University of York.

“They really are the canary in the coal mine,” according to the scientist, who led the assessment.

The candle coral (Dendrogyra cylindricus), typical of Caribbean waters, is now classified as “critically endangered”.

Its population has declined by more than 80% across most of its range since 1990.

Bleaching, caused by the warming sea surface -- along with antibiotics, fertilizers and sewage pouring into it -- has made them highly susceptible to 'coral tissue loss disease' , causing a hecatomb over the last four years.

Overfishing around the reefs has also contributed to the disaster, as the reduction in the population of herbivorous fish has encouraged the proliferation of algae.

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