Elicit 12 Recently Extinct Ocean Creatures

Elicit 12 Recently Extinct Ocean Creatures

The oceans represent the last remaining wilderness on Earth; a world of stunning beauty and complete incomprehensibility. But there is another crisis, a more insidious one that's a lot more silent than the former one. The actions of human beings have resulted in creating the extinction procedures that will eliminate special sea life on this planet. To honor this last dozen most amazing sea creatures that recently died out, this article will tell you how they lived and what their extinction should teach us.

Caribbean Monk Seal

This is the only species of seal from the Caribbean Sea and was a favorite food of humans. The evenly spaced mass shootings were to supply the blubber, which was used for lamp oil and fuel, meaning this animal was being hunted relentlessly and became extinct at a frightening pace. The last record of it was in 1952. This extinction is a sign of how much hunting has negatively affected the number of marine mammals.

Stellar's Sea Cow

Of the mollusks, the most famous of the sea monsters of the late Pleistocene was the Stellar Sea Cow, an enormously large but harmless relative of today's manatee. This 30 foot long behemoth was hunted to extinction in 27 years after being  discovered in 1741 in the Bering Sea by seal hunters, who killed the whales for their meat, fat and whale skin. They are a great example of just how quickly short sighted human pleasure can drive a species to extinction.

Great Auk

It was shaped as a penguin, keeping some functions of a ground bird living in the North Atlantic. Much of its meat was hunted, and particularly its down and feathers, while the last nesting pair was killed in Iceland in 1844. The Great Auk is the posterchild of overharvest that caused a wipe out of marine life.

Sea Lion 

Found along the coast of Japan and Korea, the once abundant sea lion was exploited for its skin (used as an alternative form of leather) and whiskers (used as pipe cleaners) and also for its organs used in traditional medicinal treatments. The final teeny blow was supplied in WW2 in the outcome of a military intrusion with its breeding ground. In the 1970s it was declared to be extinct.

Fire Coral

It was the first ever known coral reef to perish owing to climate change. Flash fire, as it's called, one hydrozoan, Millepora boschmai or fire coral gets its name from the pain of its sting. It is officially eradicated in 2007, making it one of the first coral species of modern time to be fully recorded to have died from climate causes. Its extinction serves as a warning about the perils of warming oceans and consequences for warm water invertebrates that are not two parts mollusk and one part sea urchin.

Solitary Coral

This overlooked the fact that the solitary and stony coral building present on Galapagos was actually a unique species, in isolation for millennia from any other its kind, which have since become threatened, if not extinct, on other islands. Massive bleaching appears already to have resulted from this warming and from which the species was not recovering. Its almost certain extinction reveals the fragility of valuable species with limited local distributions to the onslaught of scientific attacks on ocean biodiversity.

Blackfin Cisco

While the Blackfin Cisco was originally native to the Great Lakes, overfishing and pollution has made it even harder for the fish to compete with other invasive species and proteins in their environment, such as the sea lamprey. The last record was made in 1969. Its history should ring one alarm bell for how habitat destruction and the exploitation of exotic species can bring down a whole organism.

Reef Dam Sailfish

As small and unremarkable as this is, this fish also has a grisly reputation. And it is also one of the first sea fishes proven as extinct due to El Nino and global warming. In 1982-83, it was clobbered by rising sea temperatures that disrupted its plankton food supply and it completely disappeared.

Graveyard Shark

Technically, this is a deepwater shark that is Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), because it most probably is extinct. Last seen in the 1930s, it's probably now extinct due to two main reasons: being a bycatch of a powerful trawling fleet and longline fisheries and having been a primary cause of loss in marine biodiversity.

Guam Flying Fox

Like another species that barely skimmed the waters along the coast, this species is at the transition between terrestrial and marine food webs. The arrival of the invasive brown tree snake, habitat destruction through farming and hunting doomed it. The most recent appearance was during the 1970's.

Freshwater Crab

Until then the only freshwater sites of this crab were streams in China on the island of Hainan where they became extinct due to serious habitat degradation from pollution and tourism development. And even the most minor fishes with very little specialization are not safe from human intrusion.

Smooth Handfish

The Smooth Handfish was declared extinct in 2020 the first modern day marine fish known to be so extinct. This was another restricted form creature which walked using bottom fins. And it existed in a limited area off Tasmania. It's a common trophic linkage in marine settings so its limited morphology is what links this to another creature's extinction (presumably bycatch of overfishing) and it remains a proverbial canary in the marine mine (or litmus test).

A Call for Action to Conserve Ocean Life

Such is not the continuity of the twelve creatures but rather an imperative appeal. What they all have in common is all too familiar over exploitation, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change. Government commitment to ocean conservation: Sustainable fisheries, marine protected areas, reducing our plastics leakage, and engaging with climate change do not belong in an 'ideas box' to be poked at with regulations and targets; they are practical steps to avoid further marine extinctions. Remembering what we have already lost has allowed us to take more decisive action for the saving of what remains.