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  • March 11, 2013

7 Species of Sharks and Manta Rays Receive International Protection

by Dan Stone

Following news earlier this month that 100 million sharks are killed each year by fishermen—an astounding 274,000 every day—global governments agreed this week to offer the ocean predators new protection.

At the annual meeting for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Bangkok this week, a coalition of global governments voted to protect five species of sharks and two species of manta rays. By restricting the international trade of the animals’ fins, regulators hope to add legal and social stigma to killing overfished marine wildlife, several species of which have been declining at rates faster than some scientists believe the animals can reasonably rebuild their populations.

manta ray and snorkeler

A manta ray and snorkeler. Photo: Violeta Jahnel, MyShot

The species deemed imperiled that will receive the new protections are oceanic white tip sharks, three species of hammerhead sharks (scalloped hammerheads, great hammerheads, and smooth hammerhead) and porbeagle sharks. The main drive was led by Colombia, Brazil, and the United States. Only about two-third of the countries agreed to many of the changes in international law. Forty two countries opposed the proposal.

Bryan Arroyo, lead negotiator for the U.S., said his delegation was “extremely pleased” at the vote, an agreement not nearly as well received among some Asian countries. Both China and Japan voted no, arguing that shark population management should fall to regional fishery managers, rather than international bodies.

Most sharks are desired for their fins, the primary ingredient in shark fin soup in China and other parts of Asia. While global quotas on shark takes have long existed, high demand for fins has led many fisherman to bypass quotas by simply cutting the fins off of live sharks and throwing their bodies back into the water, where they eventually suffocate.

Some fin trade will be able to continue under the agreement, but at a reduced level that regulators, working with scientists, will agree is sustainable. Left unknown is whether shark fins becoming more scarce might result in driving the price of shark fin soup—and the bounty on fins—up even higher.

Update: CITES members also voted by consensus to approve Australia’s proposal to list freshwater sawfish on Appendix I, meaning most commercial trade would be banned. (The ruling still needs to be finalized at the plenary on Thursday.)

“The sawfishes are among the oceans’ most threatened species and urgently need the strongest protections possible,” Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International, said in a statement.

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There are 2 Comments. Add Yours.

  1. Tom Mariner
    March 11, 2013

    Is this a joke? Those gigantic factory ships going to stop and not kill the sharks and rays because of their species?? Particularly the Japanese and Russian vessels will willingly take the last shark or tuna or whale or ray in the sea because it would mean a better payday.

    And their governments will take any action up to shooting war to defend their ships scouring the sea life from the planet. If they want the fish for their people so badly, invest in huge farms as we do for land animals. Oh, that would be 2% more expensive?

  2. Mariana
    March 20, 2013

    This is not a joke. CITES is a really useful tool for protecting endangered species, and I say that as a criminologist specialized in combating animal smugling. It allows to treat animal smugglers that are handling species that are not native as the animal smugglers that they are.

    Even gigantic factory ships have to port, and sometimes, it isn´t in their national ports. Their ships can be searched then.

    And yes, there have been cases of ships hit by government officers because they were scouring the sea life from the planet. I know, specifically, of a japanese whaler vessel that ignored three warnings from the naval guard in territorial waters of Brasil that whaling is prohibited in our laws and in international laws. The whaler vessel was shot and refused port in Brazil, and had to go to Argentina to disembark the sailors before it sinked. This was a very long time ago, I was a child when it happened, but I still remember the ruckus that followed in the midia.

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