The Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium is the first "Center for Species Survival" of the SSC-IUCN

It is estimated that there are between 700 thousand and one million marine species in the ocean, but only one to two thirds of these are described and less than 18 thousand are evaluated by the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The partnership between the Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium and the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature began in 2018, due to the desire to make a very concrete contribution to the conservation of marine species. "We realised that most of the species we had in our aquarium had no defined conservation status, and that we could accelerate these assessments," says Núria Baylina, curator and conservation director of the Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium. Integrated to the network, between 2018 and 2022, the Oceanário, contributed to the extinction risk assessment of 21% of the 3,263 marine species assessed in this period worldwide for the Red List.

From "Red Listing Hub" partner of SSC-IUCN, the Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium has become the Center for Species Survival - being the only aquarium in Europe to integrate this network that extends the coordination of knowledge and resources to combat the loss of biodiversity, and that already has 13 organisations around the world. "There is an urgent need to understand what is happening in the ocean to plan the protection of the species that live there, properly," contextualizes Catarina Fonseca, the "IUCN Marine Species Survival Officer" responsible for the project. The Centers for Species Survival are partners that support the identification of conservation priorities, seeking to maximise the impact of these actions at a local level. In the case of the Oceanário, for now, the focus is on Marine Species Assessments, in three different projects:

| Red Book of the Marine Fishes of Portugal - led by the Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium and Oceano Azul Foundation, with the support of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) and ICNF, and partial funding from the Lisbon City Council, it aims to determine the risk of extinction in the Portuguese territory of about 1050 species of marine fish that occur here.

| Assessment of Species in Public Aquaria - led by the Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium, with the aim of assessing all the species with a Non-Evaluated (NE) status in the Oceanário collection;

| Global Assessment of Marine Species - led by the IUCN Marine Biodiversity Unit and to which the Oceanário contributed with more than 670 marine fish assessments and as moderator of international workshops.

It is known that 42,100 species are at risk of extinction, most due to human action. Reversing the negative trend of biodiversity loss and saving these species depends on the actions we take. The Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium wants to bring together the specialists and, through the Species Survival Centre, contribute in a decisive way to the conservation of the ocean.

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About the Oceanário de Lisboa.

Recognised three times as "the best aquarium in the world" by Tripadvisor's Travellers' Choice, the Oceanário de Lisboa is a world-class public aquarium, a place that brings the ocean to the city through the nearly 500 marine species that inhabit it. The Oceanário's mission is to encourage visitors to learn more about the ocean, making them aware of their own responsibility in the conservation of our natural heritage by changing their behaviour towards a more sustainable society. The Oceanário Lisbon Aquarium develops educational activities, collaborates in scientific research and marine biodiversity conservation projects that promote the sustainable development of the ocean.

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