Why in news? COP 15 at Montreal Canada lists Abalone, Dugong and Pillar Coral threatened with extinction   

Highlights

• As many as 44 per cent of all abalone shellfish species threatened with extinction, dugongs and pillar coral added to the IUCN Red List

Abalones 

• They are the world’s most expensive seafoods and are considered a culinary delicacy.
•  Live in the shell, frozen, or canned and is revered for its sweet, salty, and buttery taste.
• Threats : Unsustainable extraction and poaching along over fishing ,pollution , disease , habitat loss , algal bloom ,warming and acidification 
• Marine heatwaves that have resulted in mass mortalities of Roe’s abalones in Western Australia 

Dugong 

• It is a marine mammal.
• Habitat : Pans the waters of some 40 countries and territories throughout the Indo-West Pacific. 
• The dugong is largely dependent on benthic seagrass communities for subsistence
• It is restricted to the coastal habitats that support seagrass meadows,
• Concentrated Population : Typically occurring in wide, shallow, protected areas such as bays, mangrove channels, the waters of large inshore islands and inter-reefal waters. 
• The northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay are believed contemporary stronghold.
• Population in India 
  • Highly isolated breeding : Marine National Park, Gulf of Kutch
  • Population in the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park ,the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka and around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
  • Dugong populations in east Africa and New Caledonia have entered the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered and Endangered respectively, the species remains Vulnerable globally.
• Threats: Unintentional capture in fishing gear and destruction of their food (sea grass) due to chemical pollution, oil and gas exploration and production, bottom trawling and unauthorised coastal development.

Pillar coral

• It is a hard coral 
• Location : Western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. 
• It is a digitate coral -that is, it resembles fingers) or a cluster of cigars, growing up from the sea floor without any secondary branching.
•  It is large and can grow on both flat and sloping surfaces at depths down to 20 m (65 ft). 
• It is one of the few types of hard coral that polyps can commonly be seen feeding during the day.
• IUCN Status : Critically Endangered
• The pillar coral found throughout the Caribbean from the Yucatan Peninsula and Florida to Trinidad and Tobago, has moved from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
• Threats : Contagious Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease and can affect anywhere between 90 and 100 metres of reef per day.