For the first time, global governments have come together to impose extensive international trade bans and restrictions aimed at preventing sharks and rays from being driven to extinction.
Last week, over 70 species of sharks and rays, such as oceanic whitetip sharks, whale sharks, and manta rays, were granted new protections under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES is a United Nations treaty that mandates countries to regulate or ban international trade in species that are at risk of extinction.
Sharks and rays, closely related species, serve pivotal roles as apex predators in ocean ecosystems, helping to maintain marine health. They have been the focus of fishing and international trade for decades, creating a global market valued at nearly $1 billion each year, as noted by Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), an international nonprofit focused on the preservation of wildlife and their habitats.
These wide-ranging conservation efforts were approved as the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP20) to CITES concluded in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, highlighting a significant global commitment to regulate or halt the demand for shark meat, fins, and products derived from these animals.
“These new protections are a powerful step toward ensuring these species have a real chance at recovery,” stated Diego Cardeñosa, an assistant professor at Florida International University and leading scientist at the institution’s Predator Ecology and Conservation Lab, which is developing technologies to combat the illegal trade of sharks.
Currently, over a third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction. Populations of pelagic sharks that inhabit open oceans have plummeted by more than 70 percent over the last 50 years. Meanwhile, reef sharks have nearly disappeared from one in every five coral reefs globally. “We’re in the middle of an extinction crisis for the species, and it’s a kind of a silent crisis,” remarked Warwick. “It’s only in the last decade or so that we’ve truly started to notice this happening, and the major driver is, in fact, overfishing.”