Countries Agree on Actions to Protect Sharks

Countries Agree on Actions to Protect Sharks

San José, Costa Rica, 19 February 2016 - Close to 40 governments agreed this week to enhance protection for additional migratory shark and ray species and to a set of new conservation priorities.

At the Second Meeting of the Signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks (Sharks MOU), which ended in Costa Rica's capital Friday, 39 countries and the European Union agreed to grant protection to an additional 22 species of sharks and rays.

"The oceans' top predators help maintain the balance of marine ecosystems. Ensuring their survival is a global public interest that requires concerted, cooperative action by governments, fisheries, local communities, conservation organizations, scientists and the general public. As the meeting in Costa Rica has confirmed, the CMS Sharks MOU is providing the framework for this essential collaboration", said Bradnee Chambers, Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

The 22 species listed by governments in Costa Rica, include five species of sawfish, three of thresher shark, nine species of mobula ray, the Reef Manta Ray, the Giant Manta Ray the Silky Shark, the Great Hammerhead and the Scalloped Hammerhead.

This decision significantly increases the number of shark and ray species protected under the Sharks MOU, which now includes all species of the two most threatened groups - sawfishes and threshers.

Sharks are highly vulnerable to overexploitation as they grow slowly, mature late and produce very few offspring. The rapid and largely unregulated increase in target fisheries and bycatch has depleted many populations of sharks and rays worldwide, with 100 million sharks estimated as being killed every year.

More:
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=27058&ArticleID=36071&l=en