Extinct Fish

To the list of recently extinct & lost fish

Extinct Fish: Data & Facts (as of 10/2025)

The International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN currently lists 91 of around 35,000 known fish species as extinct. However, this number is likely significantly higher, as many fish species are considered missing and probably extinct or have not yet been added to the Red List. According to the IUCN list, 881 fish species are threatened with extinction, 11 are extinct in the wild, and for no fewer than 5,422 species the data is insufficient.

Most fish species currently listed as extinct, 45 in total, belong to the order Cypriniformes. These include, for example, the Yilong carp from Yilong Lake in China, the blue walleye from Lakes Erie and Ontario in North America, and the duck-billed buntingi from Lake Poso in Indonesia. The second-largest group of extinct fish comprises 18 salmoniform species, such as the North Sea houting, and the third-largest group includes 11 killifish species, among them the Ash Meadows killifish from Nevada, USA.

Almost all fish listed by the IUCN as extinct belong to the class of ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii), which occur in both freshwater and marine environments. This diverse group includes trout, perch, and salmon, among others, whose fins derive their shape and rigidity from hard rays or spines. In addition to the ray-finned fishes, one species from the class of cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes) is currently considered globally extinct: the Java stingaree (Urolophus javanicus).

Fish extinct after 1500—these are the causes of their disappearance

Many aquatic organisms can only be found in a specific habitat, in a lake, a spring, or a river. The deliberate draining of bodies of water, as in the case of Lake Hula in Israel in the 1950s, can lead to the extinction of all organisms living there. At least two species, the Hula bream and the cichlid Tristramella intermedia, have become extinct since then. The construction of dams in rivers can also contribute to the disappearance of species, as illustrated by the up to three-meter-long Chinese swordfish, which was endemic to the Yangtze River and became extinct between 2005 and 2010.

Other reasons for the extinction of fish include overfishing, sedimentation, eutrophication caused by excessive fertilization of agricultural land, and water pollution, for example from shipping. But invasive species introduced into bodies of water where they were not previously native also frequently lead to the disappearance of endemic species. The most famous example is probably the Nile perch (Lates niloticus), released into Lake Victoria in East Africa in the 1960s, which caused the extinction of an estimated 400 fish species in the lake. Most of these species were cichlids of the genus Haplochromis, known to local people as furu (e.g. Haplochromis vonlinnei). In Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia, the Lake Titicaca orestias disappeared in the 1940s or 1950s after the U.S. government introduced half a million eggs of the lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) into the lake for commercial reasons.

The rise in sea level or the effects of climate change can also cause fish species to become extinct. One example is the Galápagos damsel, which disappeared after the particularly strong El Niño event of 1982/1983. This weather phenomenon caused water temperatures around the Galápagos Islands to rise, which in turn halted plankton production for at least a year. During this period, populations of many fish species that feed on plankton declined sharply.

Extinct fish are rarely marine fish

A large proportion of the fish listed by the IUCN as extinct lived in rivers and lakes, not in the sea. The reason is simple: in smaller, confined bodies of water it is comparatively easy to determine whether a species still exists there. By contrast, because of the vastness of the oceans, it is difficult to claim that a species has become extinct in the sea. The marine coelacanths, too, were thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until they were rediscovered in 1938.

One marine fish that may actually be extinct, however, is the Lost Shark. This species was only scientifically described in 2019, based on three specimens collected in the 1930s. However, since the range of the Lost Shark is more or less unclear and several shark species previously thought to be extinct have already been rediscovered, there is still hope for the Lost Shark as well.

Are there extinct fish species in Europe?

The IUCN currently lists 19 fish species as extinct in Europe, and since the IUCN Red List update in October 2024, two species from Germany have for the first time been classified as globally extinct: the Chiemsee whitefish (Coregonus hoferi) and the Starnberg whitefish (Coregonus renke). The update also removed outdated information about fish species that had previously been rediscovered. This affects the Lake Constance deepwater char (Salvelinus profundus), which was rediscovered in 2014, the cyprinid Romanogobio antipai from Romania, found again in 2016, and the Ukliva dace (Telestes ukliva) from Croatia, which had already been documented again in 1997.

Fish species that have become extinct in Europe include the strumrose whitefish, which disappeared in the 1970s because of pollution and eutrophication of Lake Constance caused by phosphate inputs from fertilizers and wastewater. In Lake Geneva in France and Switzerland, the Lake Geneva whitefish and the true Fera also became extinct in the 1950s due to eutrophication and overfishing.

The Lake Neuchâtel deepwater char, of which only three specimens are known, once lived in Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland and became extinct around 1904, although the reasons for its disappearance are unknown. The disappearance and even the existence of the may trout from Lakes Atter, Traun, and Fuschl in Austria are equally mysterious—it is known only from historical records and a scientific first description from 1784. Since October 2024, the IUCN has listed the May trout as an extinct fish species.

Detailed pages are available for the following fish:

• <em>Haplochromis vonlinnei</em> (Cichlid)
• Chinese Paddlefish
• Hula bream
• Lake Constance Whitefish: An example of species loss in alpine lakes