Burbot (Lota lota)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vertebrate > bony fish (Actinopterygii) > Fish |
| Red List Status: | Regionally Extinct (GB scale) (Not Relevant) [RE(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Lota lota |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1758) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Nunn et al., 2023 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Extinct in England |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Extinct in England. Work to assess reintro potential, trials and monitoring would all require species-specific approach. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Combination or other (detail in comments) |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Currently extinct in England due to pollution and habitat loss. Species is at edge of range and current climatic conditions suggest that the species cannot be recovered on a self sustaining basis. It is critical to understand biological needs of the species and that habitat and water quality issues are resolved prior to any re-introduction to avoid wasted resources. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Directed and localised habitat restoration projects to deliver floodplain connectivity within the R.Wissey catchment. The methods used, and any successes associated with them, will be used to inform restoration actions at other potential sites prior to any planned reintroduction
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: R. Wissey. 7.5km stretch by Stanford training area
Comments: 1 day with a digger to do some removal of bank and channel regrading
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Extended period of monitoring of fish community, macroinvertebrates and physico-chemical variables, before and after reintroduction.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: R. Wissey
Comments: Number of sites refers to rivers/catchments.
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Investigation of the feasibility of reintroductions should be extended to other eastern rivers to look at habitat availability, restoration options and climate envelope predictions.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: (Re-)introduction
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.