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The status of marine biodiversity in the Eastern Central Atlantic (ECA), especially of coastal and pelagic fishes, is of concern owing to a number of threats including overharvesting, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change combined with inadequate policy responses, legislation, and enforcement., This study provides the first comprehensive documentation of the presence, status, and level of extinction risk, based on IUCN Red List assessment methodology, for more than 1800 marine species, including all taxonomically described marine vertebrates (marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, fishes); complete clades of selected marine invertebrates (sea cucumbers, cone snails, cephalopods, lobsters, reef-building corals); and marine plants (mangroves, seagrasses)., Approximately 8% of all marine species assessed in the ECA are in threatened categories, while 4% are listed as Near Threatened, 73% are Least Concern, and 15% are Data Deficient. Fisheries and overharvesting are the biggest threats to living marine resources in the ECA, with 87% of threatened species across all taxonomic groups affected by both large- and small-scale targeted fisheries, excessive capture as by-catch, or unsustainable harvest., The results of this study will transform the current state of knowledge and increase capacity for regional stakeholders to identify and enact marine conservation and research priorities, as a number of species are identified as having high conservation and/or research priorities in the region., Through the process of marine species data collection and risk assessments conducted over the past 5 years, several key conservation actions and research needs are identified to enable more effective conservation of marine biodiversity in the ECA, including increased governance, multilateral collaboration, taxonomic training, and improved reporting of fisheries catch and effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Risks of Introduction of Marine Fishes: Reply to Briggs," by Walter R. Courtenay, Jr., Bruce B. Collettee, Timothy E. Essington, Ray Hillborn, James W. Orr, Daniel Pauly, John E. Randall, and William F. Smith-Vaniz in the April 2009 issue.

This is a rebuttal to a publication by John C. Briggs in the April 2008 issue of Fisheries in which he suggested introducing fishes and invertebrates from the North Pacific into the North Atlantic to increase diversity toward improving fisheries in the latter. We argue otherwise for reasons that Briggs downplayed or never considered. Using examples of introductions within the Pacific and the Atlantic, and movements of species from the Pacific to the Atlantic, we provide a record of failures and damage or dangers to native species from the few introductions that became successful. We argue that a lack of diversity of fishes and invertebrates in the North Atlantic versus that of the North Pacific is not the problem to be corrected by introductions as Briggs suggested. A record of overfishing and management policies is the problem in the North Atlantic. Introductions from the North Pacific to the North Atlantic are not worth the costs or the environmental risks involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a letter to the editor about the phylogeography of the three-spot seahorse.