ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed

PETITIONED: 2007

RANGE: Throughout the Indo-Pacific Oceans, from the Red Sea and the coast of east Africa to the central Pacific, south from Japan to Melanesia, and including U.S. Pacific territories such as Guam

THREATS: Habitat loss, coral bleaching, global warming, and overfishing

POPULATION TREND: The total humphead wrasse population has declined by at least half in just 30 years, with some localized populations declining by as much as 90 percent.

Photo by David Burdick, NOAA