Photo of the Day ~ CITES 2013 ~ The Year of the Shark - Mission Blue

February 15, 2013

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Photo: Oceanic White Tip Shark with Pilot Fish, (c) Daniel Botelho

CITES is widely recognized as one of the most effective and best-enforced international conservation agreements. It offers protection to more than 30,000 species around the globe and has been instrumental in preventing the extinction of numerous plants and animals. The 16th meeting of CITES will be held from March 3–14, 2013, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Advocates are pushing for the adoption of three shark proposals and one manta ray proposal, to include these species on Appendix II at CoP 16 (porbeagle, oceanic whitetip, and hammerhead sharks (scalloped, great, and smooth), and manta rays).

Fishing has drastically depleted shark and ray populations over the past 60 years. Of the shark and ray species assessed by scientists for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),  30 per cent are threatened or near-threatened with extinction. Up to 73 million sharks are killed every year to support the international shark fin trade, with most of the fins ending up in shark fin soup.

The successful conservation and management of sharks requires a wide range of measures, because sharks are highly migratory species that are caught both within national jurisdictions and on the high seas, and then traded in the international market.  Stay tuned next month for more CITES news and hopefully, good news for sharks.

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