Tiny fish, big stakes: Australia’s fight to save the Red-finned Blue-eye highlighted in a new report calling for tiny fish to be protected

Red-finned Blue-eye Fish

They’re so small, they’d fit on your fingertip. Yet tiny fish are big players in ensuring freshwater ecosystems are healthy: they recycle nutrients and act as essential bioindicators. A new report by charity SHOAL Conservation calls for international protection for tiny fish species, including Australia’s Red-finned Blue-eye.

The new report by the UK-based charity SHOAL Conservation — Tiny Fishes: the miniature marvels that slip through the net — celebrates these small fish and the important role they play in our aquatic ecosystems. The report highlights species that have been sidelined, even within a conservation sector already fighting for attention, and celebrates their complex importance. It highlights why conservation action would be highly effective if it received the resources needed and calls for targeted conservation action for some of the world’s most threatened tiny species.

The report covers threats to tiny fish species, how they adapt and the cultural connections they provide within ecosystems. It aims to ensure these species are not lost simply because they are tiny. Prioritising tiny fish species is, the report shows, essential if we’re serious about reversing the decline of freshwater biodiversity. Dive into the world of Tiny Fish here.

Thanks to one of our Ethinvest clients, the SHOAL report includes information about the work of Australia’s Bush Heritage to save the Red-finned Blue-eye, a critically endangered freshwater fish no bigger than a matchstick, that now survives only in a handful of fragile artesian springs fed by the Great Artesian Basin. Once driven to the brink of extinction by invasive mosquitofish, habitat degradation and extreme temperature changes, the species has become the focus of an intensive Bush Heritage rescue effort. Since 2008, the organisation has worked to protect the species’ habitat from livestock, remove invasive species and pioneered captive breeding, allowing fish to be reintroduced into safe habitats. The good news is, populations are beginning to recover.

The SHOAL report lists 295 fish under 40 mm on its priority list. Of those:

• 94 are Critically Endangered

• 142 are Endangered

• 2 are Extinct in the Wild

• 57 are Vulnerable.

SHOAL is calling for action to protect tiny fishes internationally through conservation action plans for key species and to work with marine NGOs around the world to join forces to protect these little-appreciated species.