Red List of Marine Fishes of Germany (funded by DLR, The German Red List Centre)

Foto: LIB, R. Thiel

The conservation of biodiversity is an important aim at the national and international levels. While taxa such as mammals and birds are already given greater consideration in the marine waters, this is unfortunately not yet the case for fish. There are considerable gaps in the assessment of the status of their stocks in the sea.

In a project funded by the DLR, The German Red List Centre, the Ichthyology Section of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) at Hamburg is coordinating the compilation of the Red List of Germany's marine fishes.  

Based on an overall species list of the fish species occurring in the German waters of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, which is to be compiled first, the current situation of the stock as well as the short-term and long-term stock trend are determined for each established fish species and the endangerment situation is derived from this. For this purpose, extensive data from national and international fish stock surveys are analysed with suitable statistical methods in cooperation with other project partners from Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein. Causes of endangerment of the fish fauna are presented and necessary protection measures are named.

Funding party: DLR, The German Red List Centre

Project coordinator: Prof. Dr. Ralf Thiel

Period: 2021-2023