Endemic and Endangered Species
Dinaric karst water systems support 25% of the total of 546 fish species in Europe. Watercourses of this area support a large number of endemic species of fish. The river Neretva and its tributaries represent the main drainage system in the east Adriatic watershed and the foremost ichthyofaunal habitat of the region. According to Smith & Darwall (2006) the Neretva River, together with four other areas in the Mediterranean, has the largest number of threatened freshwater fish species.
The degree of endemism in the karst ecoregion is greater than 10% of the total number of fish species. Numerous species of fish that inhabited this area live in very narrow and limited areas and are vulnerable, so they are included on the Red List of endangered fish and the IUCN-2006. The Adriatic basin has 88 species of fish, of which 44 are Mediterranean endemic species, and 41 are Adriatic endemic species. More than half of the Adriatic river basin species of fish inhabit the Neretva, the Ombla, the Trebišnjica, the Morača Rivers and their tributaries, and more than 30 are indigenous.
Read more about this topic: Neretva
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