The common skate (Dipturus batis), a type of ray, isn't common at all. The rare fish species is already critically endangered, but now new research indicates that the common skate is actually two species, so both are more at risk than previously thought.

According to a paper to be published this week in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, the common skate is really two similar-looking species, the flapper skate (D. intermedia) and the blue skate (D. flossada). This long-standing misclassification has led to miscounting of skates caught by commercial fishermen, all of which have been counted as common skates, says lead researcher Samuel Iglésias of France's National Museum of Natural History. This has allowed the flapper skate to be overfished, and placed it in danger of extinction.

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Bluefin tuna fishing in the Atlantic will be reduced nearly 40 percent in 2010, but will that be enough to save this threatened species from extinction?

Populations of one of the world's most highly desired and valuable fish, Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), have dropped 97 percent since 1960. As the numbers have crashed, market prices have soared. Earlier this year, two Japanese sushi bars paid a record $104,000 for a single, 128-kilogram tuna.

For several years now scientists and conservation groups have called on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to reduce the amount of catch it allows its 48 member nations to net each year and thereby allow bluefin populations to recover. At a meeting Sunday in Brazil the ICCAT did just that, deciding to lower the annual quotas for Atlantic bluefin tuna to 13,500 metric tons. This continues a downward trend for ICCAT's quotas: the 2009 quota was 22,000 tonnes, and the previous year's came in at 28,000 tonnes.

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The rarest of the nine giraffe subspecies, the West African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta), almost didn't make it to the 21st century. After years of being poached and losing habitat to development, only 50 of these animals were left in Niger in 1996, and the subspecies's future seemed bleak.

But today, just 13 years later, there are more than 200 West African giraffes, a 400 percent increase, and the subspecies looks like it will not only survive, but thrive.

So what brought about this rare conservation success? First of all, the government of Niger created strict regulations against poaching, which they actually enforced (a rarity in many African countries). Niger also recognized the benefit of ecotourism, and saw that having the last population of these giraffes could be an income-generating opportunity.

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Every time you open a can of tuna, an albatross dies.

Okay, that's not exactly true, but albatrosses and other seabirds are increasingly endangered by commercial tuna fishing, according to a new report from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and BirdLife International. The problem has gotten so bad that albatrosses are killed on fishing lines at a rate of one every five minutes, according to scientists representing the U.K.-based organizations.

The report has been released to coincide with a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), headquartered in Madrid, which takes place in Brazil this week to discuss fishing quotas for Mediterranean tuna and swordfish.

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This is a crucial time for the critically endangered vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus). Despite conservation efforts, the vaquita population has dropped more than 50 percent in the past three years as hundreds of porpoises have died in commercial fishing nets. Now just 150 vaquitas remain in their sole habitat, a portion of the Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico, and the species exists at the razor's edge of extinction.

But meanwhile, hundreds, if not thousands, of local fishermen depend on the vaquita's ocean habitat for their livelihoods. They have not been happy about, or supportive of, previous efforts to preserve the porpoise. As Nature reported in 2007: "Fishing industry advocates sometimes speak openly of wiping [the vaquita] out...Earlier programmes to alter fishing practices in the region have proven difficult to implement; last year, $1 million from the government that ostensibly paid regional fishermen not to fish instead went to buy new boats and motors."

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What do comic books, a reggae band and alternative fuels have in common? They are all part of a project to help save critically endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Last April, I wrote about a project in the DRC that aimed to save mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park, which is home to half of the world's 720 or so members of the species, by convincing locals to stop using forest-destroying charcoal as fuel. That project has now reached its halfway point, but it still has a way to go.

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The 2009 edition of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was released today, and the news isn't good: 17,291 species out of 47,677 assessed species, or 36 percent, are threatened with extinction.

Science currently recognizes around 1.8 million species on Earth (out of an estimated five million to 30 million total species—the true total remains unknown). But the health of the vast majority of those known  species has yet to be assessed. Even among those on the IUCN's list, 14 percent lack enough information to judge their health (or threat level) in the wild.

Below is a breakdown of the endangered species' status on the new IUCN list:

•    Extinct: 809
•    Extinct in the Wild: 66
•    Critically Endangered: 3,325 (of these, 257 species are listed as "possibly extinct")

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More than half of the U.K.'s rarest birds have seen recent population increases, according to the 10th annual "State of the U.K.'s Birds" report (pdf).

Published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in association with several local conservation groups, the report assesses the status of 210 bird species.

Of the 63 rarest U.K. bird species (those with fewer than 1,000 breeding pairs), nearly 60 percent have seen population increases. They include the osprey, corncrake, avocet, cirl bunting and stone-curlew, all of which have enjoyed the benefits of focused conservation programs.

At the same time, 28 percent of the rare birds have seen population drops. The common scoter, for example, is down to just 52 breeding pairs, and could go extinct in the U.K. in 10 years, according to the RSPB.

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As the deadly chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd ) continues its spread around the globe, putting thousands of amphibian species at risk of extinction, scientists are taking a few steps to control it, or at least understand it better.

First, researchers led by Jamie Voyles of James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, believe they have finally figured out how the chytrid fungus kills. Writing in the October 23 Science, Voyles and her team report that the fungus changes the electrolyte balance in frogs and other amphibians, sending them into fatal cardiac arrests.

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The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has proposed designating some 200,000 square miles of lands and waters along the north coast of Alaska as "critical habitat" for endangered polar bears (Ursus maritimus). In May 2008 the bears received limited protected status as a "threatened species" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). A proposed habitat designation normally would have been made after the original ESA listing, but a lawsuit by several conservation groups was required in this case.

According to FWS, "Critical habitat identifies geographic areas containing features considered essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and that may require special management or protection. The designation of critical habitat under the ESA does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, wilderness, reserve, preserve, or other conservation area. It does not allow government or public access to private lands. A critical habitat designation does not affect private lands unless federal funds, permits, or activities are involved."

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