Governments endorse greater protections for sharks amid concerns about overfishing

Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction.

The measures, approved Friday at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, bans the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks. It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.

Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.

“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections,” Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement. “Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal.”

Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins and meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37% of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.

“For too long, sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat,” Barbara Slee, senior program manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement. “People may fear sharks, but the truth is we pose a far greater threat to them—with more than 100 million killed every year. These new protections will help shift that balance and recognise and honour these sharks as more than just fishery commodities.”

Some of the treaty’s greatest successes of late have been around sharks.

At the last conference in Panama in 2022, governments increased protections more than 90 shark species, including 54 species of requiem sharks, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of guitarfish. Many had never before had trade protection.

The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted in 1975 in Washington, D.C., has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles. But it has come under fire for its limitations, including its reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to combat illegal trade that’s become a lucrative $10 billion-a-year business.

This year, conservationists said that governments had rejected efforts to weaken trade regulations for elephants and rhinos, though they did agree to relax regulations in the trade of saiga horn from Kazakhstan.

Conservationists had opposed the move over concerns it could lead to increased poaching in neighboring Central Asian countries. But the move to allow the trade comes as the antelope was reclassified from critically endangered to near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to increased law enforcement and habitat protection. That has led to dramatic increase in its numbers.