EarthTrends (http://earthtrends.wri.org) Searchable Database Results
Provided by the World Resources Institute (http://www.wri.org)
"Water Resources and Freshwater Ecosystems -- Species: Fish species, number"

"Units: Number documented"

,,1992-2003,
Country
"Afghanistan","AFG",115,
"Albania","ALB",109,
"Algeria","DZA",100,
"American Samoa","ASM",310,
"Angola","AGO",108,
"Antigua and Barbuda","ATG",170,
"Argentina","ARG",102,
"Armenia","ARM",17,
"Aruba","ABW",176,
"Australia","AUS",1489,
"Austria","AUT",49,
"Azerbaijan","AZE",32,
"Bahamas","BHS",248,
"Bahrain","BHR",54,
"Bangladesh","BGD",81,
"Barbados","BRB",177,
"Belarus","BLR",23,
"Belgium","BEL",58,
"Belize","BLZ",195,
"Benin","BEN",84,
"Bermuda","BMU",161,
"Bhutan","BTN",3,
"Bolivia","BOL",50,
"Bosnia and Herzegovina","BIH",77,
"Botswana","BWA",1,
"Brazil","BRA",471,
"British Virgin Islands","VGB",147,
"Brunei Darussalam","BRN",64,
"Bulgaria","BGR",89,
"Burundi","BDI",5,
"Cambodia","KHM",128,
"Cameroon","CMR",138,
"Canada","CAN",128,
"Cape Verde","CPV",132,
"Cayman Islands","CYM",165,
"Côte d'Ivoire","CIV",111,
"Central African Rep","CAF",2,
"Chad","TCD",1,
"Chile","CHL",163,
"China","CHN",395,
"Colombia","COL",318,
"Comoros","COM",164,
"Congo","COG",79,
"Congo, Dem Rep","COD",101,
"Cook Islands","COK",282,
"Costa Rica","CRI",234,
"Croatia","HRV",112,
"Cuba","CUB",289,
"Cyprus","CYP",72,
"Czech Rep","CZE",44,
"Denmark","DNK",70,
"Djibouti","DJI",166,
"Dominica","DMA",169,
"Dominican Rep","DOM",178,
"Ecuador","ECU",246,
"Egypt","EGY",284,
"El Salvador","SLV",113,
"Equatorial Guinea","GNQ",83,
"Eritrea","ERI",102,
"Estonia","EST",37,
"Ethiopia","ETH",13,
"Faeroe Islands","FRO",36,
"Falkland Islands","FLK",13,
"Fiji","FJI",355,
"Finland","FIN",39,
"France","FRA",169,
"French Guiana","GUF",154,
"French Polynesia","PYF",384,
"Gabon","GAB",104,
"Gambia","GMB",102,
"Georgia","GEO",49,
"Germany","DEU",95,
"Ghana","GHA",90,
"Gibraltar","GIB",70,
"Greece","GRC",152,
"Greenland","GRL",20,
"Grenada","GRD",172,
"Guadeloupe","GLP",151,
"Guam","GUM",419,
"Guatemala","GTM",207,
"Guinea","GIN",121,
"Guinea-Bissau","GNB",110,
"Guyana","GUY",156,
"Haiti","HTI",184,
"Honduras","HND",225,
"Hong Kong","HKG",262,
"Hungary","HUN",47,
"Iceland","ISL",46,
"India","IND",5749,
"Indonesia","IDN",4080,
"Iran, Islamic Rep","IRN",112,
"Iraq","IRQ",170,
"Ireland","IRL",365,
"Israel","ISR",178,
"Italy","ITA",168,
"Jamaica","JAM",200,
"Japan","JPN",1007,
"Jordan","JOR",73,
"Kazakhstan","KAZ",38,
"Kenya","KEN",314,
"Kiribati","KIR",212,
"Korea, Dem People's Rep","PRK",40,
"Korea, Rep","KOR",96,
"Kuwait","KWT",44,
"Kyrgyzstan","KGZ",1,
"Lao People's Dem Rep","LAO",49,
"Latvia","LVA",38,
"Lebanon","LBN",77,
"Lesotho","LSO",2,
"Liberia","LBR",86,
"Libyan Arab Jamahiriya","LBY",81,
"Liechtenstein","LIE",4,
"Lithuania","LTU",39,
"Luxembourg","LUX",7,
"Macau","MAC",72,
"Macedonia, FYR","MKD",17,
"Madagascar","MDG",390,
"Malawi","MWI",163,
"Malaysia","MYS",368,
"Maldives","MDV",489,
"Mali","MLI",2,
"Malta","MLT",88,
"Marshall Islands","MHL",426,
"Martinique","MTQ",162,
"Mauritania","MRT",117,
"Mauritius","MUS",430,
"Mexico","MEX",674,
"Micronesia, Fed States","FSM",534,
"Moldova, Rep","MDA",49,
"Monaco","MCO",86,
"Mongolia","MNG",1,
"Morocco","MAR",136,
"Mozambique","MOZ",524,
"Myanmar","MMR",281,
"Namibia","NAM",107,
"Nauru","NRU",32,
"Nepal","NPL",13,
"Netherlands","NLD",67,
"Netherlands Antilles","ANT",187,
"New Caledonia","NCL",613,
"New Zealand","NZL",228,
"Nicaragua","NIC",241,
"Niger","NER",2,
"Nigeria","NGA",95,
"Niue","NIU",126,
"Northern Mariana Islands","MNP",368,
"Norway","NOR",69,
"Oman","OMN",328,
"Pakistan","PAK",137,
"Palau","PLW",631,
"Panama","PAN",275,
"Papua New Guinea","PNG",858,
"Paraguay","PRY",18,
"Peru","PER",166,
"Philippines","PHL",952,
"Poland","POL",52,
"Portugal","PRT",158,
"Puerto Rico","PRI",190,
"Qatar","QAT",36,
"Réunion","REU",251,
"Romania","ROU",86,
"Russian Federation","RUS",199,
"Rwanda","RWA",19,
"Saint Helena","SHN",65,
"Saint Kitts and Nevis","KNA",164,
"Saint Pierre and Miquelon","SPM",3,
"Samoa","WSM",412,
"Sao Tome & Principe","STP",221,
"Saudi Arabia","SAU",167,
"Senegal","SEN",150,
"Serbia and Montenegro","YUG",125,
"Seychelles","SYC",480,
"Sierra Leone","SLE",99,
"Singapore","SGP",131,
"Slovakia","SVK",46,
"Slovenia","SVN",103,
"Solomon Islands","SLB",292,
"Somalia","SOM",331,
"South Africa","ZAF",629,
"Spain","ESP",187,
"Sri Lanka","LKA",375,
"St. Lucia","LCA",175,
"St. Vincent & Grenadines","VCT",169,
"Sudan","SDN",130,
"Suriname","SUR",168,
"Swaziland","SWZ",1,
"Sweden","SWE",78,
"Switzerland","CHE",56,
"Syrian Arab Rep","SYR",73,
"Taiwan","TWN",816,
"Tajikistan","TJK",6,
"Tanzania","TZA",331,
"Thailand","THA",308,
"Timor-Leste","TMP",23,
"Togo","TGO",82,
"Tonga","TON",106,
"Trinidad and Tobago","TTO",24,
"Tunisia","TUN",99,
"Turkey","TUR",162,
"Turkmenistan","TKM",23,
"Turks and Caicos Islands","TCA",142,
"Uganda","UGA",49,
"Ukraine","UKR",88,
"United Arab Emirates","ARE",41,
"United Kingdom","GBR",427,
"United States","USA",1101,
"Uruguay","URY",66,
"Uzbekistan","UZB",18,
"Vanuatu","VUT",216,
"Venezuela","VEN",246,
"Viet Nam","VNM",257,
"Virgin Islands","VIR",179,
"Western Sahara","",82,
"Yemen","YEM",130,
"Zambia","ZMB",8,
"Zimbabwe","ZWE",4,

Footnotes
No footnotes

Source
"World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC).  2003. Species Database, unpublished data WCMC:  Cambridge, U.K.  August 2003.  Web site:  http://www.unep-wcmc.org"


Technical Notes
"Definition"
"Fish species, number, refer to the total number of freshwater and marine fish identified, documented, and recorded in a particular country or region.  Total numbers include both endemic and non-endemic species (a species that is found in a particular region and nowhere else is said to be endemic to that region). The total number of known species may include introduced species.  Most marine fish are excluded from country totals. Figures are not necessarily comparable among countries because taxonomic concepts and the extent of knowledge vary (for the latter reason, country totals of species may be underestimates)."
""
"Years Covered and Frequency of Updates"
"Species data maintained in the UNEP-WCMC Species Database is collected by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC).  Data is updated on a continual basis as it becomes available.  The frequency of updates, however, varies among countries.  This data set contains the latest data as of August 2003."
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"Methodology"
"The number of known species is collected by UNEP-WCMC from a variety of sources, including, but not limited to: national reports from the convention on biodiversity, other national documents, independent studies, and other texts.  Data are updated on a continual basis as they become available; however, updates vary widely by country. While some countries (UNEP-WCMC estimates about 12) have data that were updated in the last 6 months, other species estimates have not changed since the data were first collected in 1992.  "
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"Data Reliability"
"Due to the extensive process required to identify and document species, total fish species in this dataset under-represent the actual number of species.   In addition, it is possible that not all scientifically documented fish species are included in the UNEP-WCMC Species Database.  This is true not just for fish, but for all species:  the UNEP-WCMC Species Database documents a total of about 72,000 animal species and 140,000 plant species out of about 1.5 million species documented globally (Meffe and Carroll 1997).  The estimated total number of global species is far higher than the documented number, and estimates range from 10 million to 50 million or more (May 1988; Wilson 1992).  It is clear that at best, only about 2% of the total species of the world are represented in the UNEP-WCMC Species Database.  The actual total number of fish species tends to be less well known than the total number of mammals and birds. Fishbase may provide more accurate data on number of fish than UNEP-WCMC."
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"Technical Notes References"
"May R.M. 1988.  How many species are there on earth?  Science 241(4)1441-1449."
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"Meffe G.K. and Carroll C.R.  1997.  Principles of Conservation Biology (2nd ed.).  Sunderland, Massachusetts:  Sinauer Associates, Inc."
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"Wilson E.O.  1992.  The Diversity of Life.  Cambridge, Massachusetts:  Belknap Press of Harvard University."