Romania’s unique ‘living fossil’ fish filmed after dark for first time as conservation project fights to save it from extinction

After filming the aspretein its natural habitat for the first time in 2020, the Aspretele Trăiește/Asprete Lives conservation project just marked another first for the critically endangered fish species that still swims Romania's Vâlsan river, its one-and-only refuge today. The team photographed and filmed the 'living fossil' fish at night - something never done before since the species' discovery in the 1950s. Still, while this is a major step in the efforts to save the species from extinction, it's not all good news.

Scientific surveys of the little-known asprete revealed constant increases in identified individuals but still not enough to say the million-year-old species is out of danger. The asprete remains the rarest freshwater fish in Europe and possibly the world.