The Living Planet Index for Migratory Freshwater Fish - Technical Report.

The Living Planet Index for Migratory Freshwater Fish is the first comprehensive global report on the status of migratory fish. The technical report finds migratory freshwater fish are under immense threat from human-made impacts and urgent action is required to halt and then reverse the alarming decline. Migratory freshwater fish (i.e. fish that use freshwater systems, either partly or exclusively) occur around the world and travel between critical habitats to complete their life cycle. They are disproportionately threatened compared to other fish groups but global trends in abundance, regional differences and drivers of patterns have not yet been comprehensively described. Using abundance information from the Living Planet Database, we found widespread declines between 1970 and 2016 in tropical and temperate areas and across all regions, all migration categories and all populations. Globally, migratory freshwater fish have declined by an average of 76%. Average declines have been more pronounced in Europe (-93%) and Latin America & Caribbean (-84%), and least in North America (-28%).