Remembering 12 Recently Extinct Ocean Creatures

Remembering 12 Recently Extinct Ocean Creatures

The oceans are the last unexplored area of our planet, a world of both astonishing beauty, and ultimate incomprehension. But there is another more silent crisis below the waves. The activities of humans have led to the process of extinction that will wipe out special marine life on this planet. These are not only figures but rather tales of the lost. This article commemorates the last dozen truly amazing ocean creatures that have recently been extinct, how they existed and what their extinction can teach us.

1. Caribbean Monk seal

This is the only seal native to the Caribbean Sea and it was a popular human prey. Mercilessly hunted to supply its blubber (used in lamp oil and fuel), it died out at an alarming rate. The last sighting of it was recorded in 1952. This extinction is an indication of the detrimental effects of unregulated hunting on the population of marine mammals.

2. Stellar s Sea Cow

The Mammal most renowned amongst the late extinct sea beasts was the Stellar Sea Cow, a giant, but harmless, member of the manatee family. Hunted to extinction in just 27 years, these 30-foot long giants were discovered in 1741 in the Bering Sea and killed by seal hunters who wanted their meat, fat and hide. They are a fantastic example of how rapidly short-term human gratification can decline a kind into extinction.

3. Tim Auk

It was a grounded bird, which was able to replace the functions of a penguin in the North Atlantic. Much of its down, its feathers, and meat were hunted, and the last known breeding pair was killed in Iceland in 1844. The extinction of the Great Auk is the classic paradigm of over-exploitation that resulted in a loss of ocean biodiversity.

4. Sea Lion 

A once-common sea mammal along the coast of Japan and Korea, the sea lion was harvested as skin (as a leather substitute) and whiskers (often used as pipe cleaners), and organs that were used in traditional medicine. The last nail in the coffin came in the form of military interference with its breeding grounds in the course of WWII. In the 1970s it was pronounced extinct.

5. Fire Coral

It became the first recorded coral reef to suffer extinction due to change of climate. One hydrozoan, Millepora boschmai or fire coral, owes its name to the pain of its sting. Its extinction is officially declared in 2007, which is why it is one of the first of the modern coral species to be completely recorded to have been lost to climate phenomena. The fact of its extinction provides notice of the threats of ocean warming on specialized marine invertebrates.

6. Wellington's Solitary Coral

This was how the Galapagos inhabitants had a unique coral reef builder, solitary and stony. it was declared as being under extreme threat, possibly extinct. The warming phenomenon induced disastrous bleaching to which the species was unable to rebound. The fact of its probable extinction sheds light on the vulnerability of endemic small-population species to the frontal attacks of the research on the marine biodiversity.

7. Blackfin Cisco

Indigenous to the Great Lakes, the Blackfin Cisco was overfished, compounded by pollution and competition with other invasive species/proteins such as the sea lamprey. The last record was made in 1969. Its history is a reinforcement of how the destruction of the habitat and the use of invasive species can bring down an entire organism.

8. Sailfish of the Galapagos Reef Dam

This puny, modest-looking fish has a macabre distinction. It is also among the earliest sea fishes to be proven extinct as a result of El Nino and global warming. In 1982-83 the warming of waters caused disruption of its plankton food source resulting in its entire absence.

9. Graveyard shark

Though technically considered "Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct)," given its probability of having disappeared, this is a deep-water shark. Last observed in the 1930s, it is probably now extinct as an incidental catch of a robust trawling fleet and longline fisheries and a primary cause of marine biodiversity loss.

10. Guam Flying Fox

A bat that grazed the coastal waters, this species forms the borderline between the loss of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The destruction of habitats through agriculture, hunting and the introduction of the invasive brown tree snake spelt its end. It was most recently seen in the 1970s.

11. Freshwater crab

The only known freshwater locations of this crab were streams on Hainan Island, China, where their extinction was directly related to severe habitat degradation as a result of both pollution and tourism development. Even the small fishes with very limited speciality are not immune to human encroachment.

12. Smooth Handfish

In an ominous first, the Smooth Handfish was declared extinct in 2020, the first modern-day marine fish to be so. This was another freak of nature which walked using its fins on the bottom. It lived in a localized region off Tasmania. Overfishing (presumably bycatch) and habitat degradation are considered to have caused its extinction and it serves as one of the prosecutable symbols of threatened marine life with limited anatomy.

An appeal to ocean conservation

The legacy of these twelve creatures is not purely one of loss, but an action oriented call. What unites their stories is quite familiar, it is overexploitation, habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change. The way to move on is increased commitment to oceanic conservation Sustainable fisheries, marine protected areas, reduction of plastic pollution, and combating climate change are not merely hypothetical measures that are supposed to be undertaken: they are real steps to prevent marine extinctions in the future.

Recollecting what we have already lost we take more resolute actions to save what we still have. The song of the ocean is silenced, yet the silence does not have to be permanent as far as the voices of other distinctive characters are concerned.