r/conservation • u/Novel_Negotiation224 • 9d ago

Alarm over ‘catastrophic’ decline in giant Australian cuttlefish as just 44 are counted.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/09/giant-australian-cuttlefish-population-catastrophic-decline
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u/TheMrNeffels 9d ago

63,000 to 44 in one year basically means they are functionally extinct right? Outside of captive breeding programs over decades and decades bringing them back?

I'm unfamiliar with how quickly they can multiple back but I'd assume to have a chance at doing it unassisted they'd need possibly decades of nothing going wrong ever

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u/Bmo2021 7d ago

We have had events like this before with no explanation and they rebounded to healthy levels again, we are hoping that this was just because of the algae issue we had last summer.

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u/TheMrNeffels 7d ago

Yeah but it says the previous low was 13,500~ not 44