The Swedish species databank have red listed the cold water prawn (Pandalus borealis) as a threatened species. Main justification for the red-listing is due to that the population has decreased with 30-50% over the last ten years.
For a species to be red-listed it must meet the international red-listing criteria, which among other things includes that the population must have been reduced by at least 30% over the last ten years. The Swedish species data bank have, based on statistics from ICES, concluded that the cold water prawn population have decreased during the last ten years between 30-50 percent.
The cold water shrimp are placed under the category of Near Threatened, which is the lower of the five categories in which the species is placed not directly threatened or meeting the criteria for the higher categories Extinct, Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable.
The red list is a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a mean to assess the state of species in the wild. It is used as a tool to forecast the risk of individual species to go extinct, where the analysis is based strictly on quantifying the species risk of extinction. The Red List is used as a tool for making conservation priorities, but does not have a legal status.
The researchers behind the Red List are aware of the recent increase within the population, but say that it is too uncertain to be able to establish that the prawn population will increase within the coming years.
It is now up to the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM), and ultimately the EU, to consider how the red-listing is to be handled.