Ten freshwater fish are in danger of disappearing forever from Italy's rivers, lakes and lagoons, the Italian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Thursday.
The eel, the Adriatic sturgeon, the stream and panzarolo goby, the Garda and Fibreno pike, the marbled and Sardinian trout, and the brook and Po Valley lamprey are all at risk of extinction due to habitat damage.
Raising the alarm in a dossier presented ahead of World Water Day on March 22, the WWF said that of the 50 species of Italian freshwater fish recorded, two types of sturgeon and the river lamprey were already extinct.
While the association singled out ten species as being in greatest danger of disappearing from Italian waters, a total of 22 species are at risk and all but one of the remaining species are classed as vulnerable, it said.
Only the chub, a fish that manages to thrive even in water beside industrial drainage outlets, is not in any danger of extinction.
The WWF said that natural habitat destruction and pollution were the main causes of the disappearance of the fish, who are a 'thermometer' of water quality.
''The safeguarding and management of our water courses, lakes and wet zones are currently going through a rather dark period,'' said WWF water expert Andrea Agapito Ludovici.
He said the creation of canals and weirs, gravel extraction, the introduction of non-native species and the non-application of European Union conservation directives all added to the problem.
WWF is appealing for greater cooperation between district and water authorities to promote environmental monitoring in rivers and lakes and to ensure that habitat protection laws are followed.
Ludovici also pointed out that beyond the immediate environmental crisis of fish disappearing from the freshwater ecosystem, the phenomenon would have wide-reaching repercussions for Italy's two million sport fishermen.
''The sport fishing industry has an extremely significant economic turnover: from specialist clothing to fishing gear and specialist magazines - it's a huge world,'' he said.
