BIOtheNUMBERS

Honey bees pollinate approximately $15 Billion worth of crops in the U.S. each year

It is estimated that honeybees only pollinate 15% of the most common food crops worldwide

Over 75% of all flowering plants are pollinated by animals

More than 100,000 different animal species - and perhaps as many as 200,000 - play roles in pollinating the 250,000 kinds of flowering plants on this planet

Insects (bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, flies, beetles) are the most common pollinators, but as many as 1,500 species of vertebrates such as birds and mammals serve as pollinators, including hummingbirds, perching birds, flying foxes, fruit bats, possums, lemurs and even a lizard (gecko)

At least 3 bat, 5 birds, and 24 butterfly, skipper and moth, one beetle and one fly species in the United States that are federally listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, are pollinators. It is unknown how many of the listed plants require pollinators.

Of the hundred or so crops that make up most of the world’s food supply, only 15% are pollinated by domestic bees, while at least 80% are pollinated by wild bees and other wildlife

The number of commercially managed honeybee colonies has declined from 5.9 million in the 1940s to 4.3 million in 1985 and 2.7 million in 1995

Data: USFWS

“Among the 566 extinct mollusk species, 400 are from oceanic islands, representing 71% of all listed mollusk extinctions. And among these 400 extinct mollusk species,327 are endemic to the most isolated islands of the world.”

Pacific islands - 225 species/subspecies
North America - 90
Asia - 59
Mascarene Islands - 49
Europe - 38
West Indies - 27
South/Central America - 21
Oceania - 13
Macaronesia - 11
Africa - 3
Others - 30

Reference: RÉGNIER, C., FONTAINE, B., & BOUCHET, P. (2009). Not Knowing, Not Recording, Not Listing: Numerous Unnoticed Mollusk Extinctions Conservation Biology

Quotes taken from the Nature Conservancy’s 2009 report ‘Shellfish Reefs at Risk: A Global Analysis of Problems and Solutions’

“In most individual bays and ecoregions there has been a >90% loss in oyster reef habitat. In some bays, losses are >99%”

“Globally, 85% of oyster reefs have been lost, making oyster reefs one of the most severely impacted marine ecosystem on the planet”

“In 1864 alone, 700 million European flat oysters (Ostrea edulis) were consumed in London, employing up to 120,000 men in Britain to dredge oysters”

“Shell piles in the southwest of France contain over 1 trillion shells apiece”

“Chesapeake Bay reefs are closer to 1% remaining than 10% remaining”

“They [oyster reefs] are functionally extinct with less than 1% of prior abundances remaining in many bays (37% of bays) and ecoregions (28% of ecoregions), particularly in North America, Australia and Europe”

“Nearly half of the assessed shellfish populations were either moderately or highly threatened by overfishing and environmental degradation”

“Oyster reefs are at less than 10% of prior abundance in most bays (70%) and ecoregions (63%)”

“Most wild Ostrea edulis populations in Europe were removed between 100 and nearly 1000 years ago, but in just the past decade (1990s), a wild population in the Gulf of Thessaloniki (Greece) collapsed from more than 1000 tonnes of harvest annually to a point where it is now difficult to find just 60 individual oysters with a dredge”