Over 100 shark and ray species were recently added to an international treaty, known as the CITES list, to protect them from the threat of unsustainable and illegal trade.
Shark populations have been declining for years, largely due to overfishing. And for years, the solutions offered by researchers have included increasing the number, size and effectiveness of marine protected areas and improving the global management of sharks and stingrays in fisheries that catch them.
Why are sharks and rays declining today? On the surface, these new protections for sharks and rays are a step in the right direction. But, being listed on CITES means the species’ population was in steep decline, driven by humans trading these species at unsustainable levels. However, this was not usually the case. 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.
According 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. What’s worse? There is no data regarding the volume and species of guitarfish that are traded internationally.
Canada voted against protecting guitarfishes at CITES COP19. There are no guitarfishes that live in Canadian waters, nor is there any evidence of import. Therefore, this vote would not affect any catch, landings or trade for Canada.
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