This varied distribution means that each species’ global status is directly related to how well these countries manage their catch.Īccording to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, over 77 per cent of guitarfish are threatened with extinction, meaning current management is not working. Another species is found in the waters surrounding Taiwan. One species is found in Tanzania and Madagascar, while another can be found in Malaysia and Indonesia. While guitarfish are found throughout the tropics, the distribution of their various individual species vary across waters of different countries. For example, the Blacktip Reef Shark is well-managed in Australia, but less so elsewhere in its range. In wide-ranging species, like many requiem sharks, they are subject to a patchwork of management. There are big differences in how well sharks and rays are managed globally. Therefore, the inclusion of an additional 104 species will hopefully improve management of sharks and rays in fisheries globally. We did find that landing limits were more likely to exist for species already listed on CITES Appendix II - like the Oceanic Whitetip and Silky Sharks. We found most countries have little understanding of the population status of species in their waters and few, if any, landing limits - number of individuals or total tonnes allowed to be caught - were imposed for sharks and rays. This shows they have the capacity and infrastructure to ideally manage sharks and rays. On assessing their fisheries management, we found that most countries have a central management body in place, engage with international treaties (like CITES) and manage illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In our newly published paper, we revealed that requiem sharks only have half of the ideal management in place and in another paper show that guitarfish have just 45 per cent of ideal management in fisheries across 30 countries and four Regional Fisheries Management Organizations.
In fisheries across 30 nations and four Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, only half the ideal management efforts are in place for requiem sharks including this whitetip reef shark. All four shark and ray proposals passed and the species were added to the list. Guitarfishes are, meanwhile, heavily traded throughout Africa and southern Asia. This listing would impact global fisheries and trade, especially considering that the requiem sharks make up over half of the global annual reported catch of sharks and rays. The acceptance of these four proposals, which included 54 requiem sharks, 37 guitarfishes, six hammerheads and seven river rays, would restrict their trade to sustainable and legal avenues.
A solution to this issue lies in the use of international treaties like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), wherein 184 member countries propose ways to ensure that species are not threatened due to international trade.Īt the recent CITES Conference of the Parties (COP19) held in Panama City in November 2022, I witnessed the discussions that went into four proposals to include 104 shark and ray species in the CITES Appendix II. However, the large expanse of the ocean makes it hard to properly enforce protections in these MPAs, making this a global challenge. And for years, the solutions offered by researchers have included increasing the number, size and effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPA) and improving the global management of sharks and stingrays in fisheries that catch them. Shark populations have been declining for years, largely due to overfishing.
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