The sector’s oceans are house to a fantastic number of sharks and rays, from the most important fishes within the sea – the majestic whale shark and manta rays – to the luminescent however hardly ever noticed deep-water lantern shark and guitarfishes.
The oceans had been as soon as teeming with those unusual and historical species, which advanced just about 1/2 1000000000 years in the past. On the other hand, the previous half-century has posed one of the most largest exams but to their survival. Overfishing, habitat loss and global industry have lower their numbers, placing many species on a trail towards extinction inside our lifetimes.
Scientists estimate that 100 million (sure, million) sharks and rays are killed each and every yr for meals, liver oil and different industry.
The quantity of loss is devastatingly unsustainable. Overfishing has despatched oceanic shark and ray populations plummeting by way of about 70% globally because the Nineteen Seventies.
A manta ray’s wingspan will also be 12 to 22 toes, and a few massive ocean rays can develop even better.
Jon Hanson/Flickr, CC BY-SA
That’s why international locations all over the world agreed in December 2025 so as to add greater than 70 shark and ray species to a world natural world industry treaty’s checklist for complete or partial coverage.
It’s crucial transfer that, as a biologist who research sharks and rays, I consider is lengthy past due.
People put shark species prone to extinction
Sharks have had a coarse experience because the Nineteen Seventies, when overfishing, habitat loss and global industry in fins, oil and different frame portions of those enigmatic sea dwellers started to impact their delicate populations. The 1975 film “Jaws” and its portrayal of an excellent white shark as a senseless killing device didn’t lend a hand other people’s perceptions.
One explanation why shark populations are so at risk of overfishing, and no more able to convalescing, is the past due timing in their sexual adulthood and their low numbers of offspring. If sharks and rays don’t continue to exist lengthy sufficient, the species can’t reproduce sufficient new individuals to stay strong.
Shedding those species is an international drawback as a result of they’re essential for a wholesome ocean, largely as a result of they lend a hand stay their prey in take a look at.
The bowmouth guitarfish, proven right here on the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, is regarded as significantly endangered.
Endangered and threatened species listings, such because the World Union for Conservation of Nature’s Crimson Checklist, can lend a hand draw consideration to sharks and rays which are in danger. However as a result of their populations span global borders, with migratory routes around the world, sharks and rays want global coverage, now not simply native efforts.
That’s why the global industry agreements set out by way of the Conference of World Business in Endangered Species, or CITES, are essential. The conference makes an attempt to create world restrictions that save you industry of secure species to provide them an opportunity to continue to exist.
New protections for sharks and rays
In early December 2025, the CITES Convention of the Events, made up of representatives from 184 international locations, voted to start up or enlarge coverage in opposition to industry for lots of species. The votes incorporated including greater than 70 shark and ray species to the CITES lists for complete or limited coverage.
The newly indexed or upgraded species come with one of the vital maximum charismatic shark and ray species.
The whale shark, one among handiest 3 filter-feeding sharks and the most important fish within the ocean, and the manta and satan rays have joined the checklist that gives the strictest restrictions on industry, known as Appendix I. Whale sharks are in danger from overfishing in addition to being struck by way of ships. As a result of they feed on the floor, chasing zooplankton blooms, those ocean giants will also be hit by way of ships, particularly now that those animals are regarded as a tourism must-see.
Manta rays are clear out feeders. Their gills pressure tiny organisms from the water as they flow.
Gordon Flood/Flickr, CC BY
Whale sharks now sign up for this maximum restrictive checklist with extra well known, cuddlier mammals similar to the enormous panda and the blue whale, and they are going to obtain the similar global industry protections.
The member international locations of CITES comply with the phrases of the treaty, so they’re legally sure to put in force its directives to droop industry. For the tightest restrictions, underneath Appendix I, import and export lets in are required and allowed handiest in remarkable instances. Appendix II species, which aren’t but threatened however may develop into threatened with out protections, require export lets in. On the other hand, the treaty phrases are necessarily a framework for each and every member govt to then put in force regulation underneath nationwide rules.
Some other shark becoming a member of the Appendix I checklist is the oceanic whitetip shark, a sublime, long-finned ocean roamer that has been fished to close extinction. Populations of this as soon as commonplace oceanic shark are down 80% to 95% within the Pacific because the mid-Nineteen Nineties, most commonly because of the rise in industrial fishing.
An oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) swims with pilot fish. Whitetip sharks are threatened partly by way of call for for his or her fins and being stuck by way of industrial fisheries.
NOAA Fisheries
In the past the one sharks or rays indexed on Appendix I had been sawfish, a gaggle of rays with an extended, sawlike projection surrounded by way of daggerlike tooth. They had been already indexed as significantly endangered by way of the IUCN’s Crimson Checklist, which assesses the standing of threatened and endangered species, however it used to be as much as governments to suggest protections thru CITES.
Different sharks gaining partial protections for the primary time come with deep-sea gulper sharks, which were prized for his or her liver oil used for cosmetics. Gulper shark populations had been decimated by way of unsustainable fishing practices. They are going to now be secure underneath Appendix II.
Gulper sharks are lengthy, slender, deep-water dwellers, in most cases round 3 to five toes lengthy.
D Ross Robertson/Smithsonian by way of Wikimedia Commons
Appendix II listings, whilst now not as sturdy as Appendix I, can lend a hand populations get better. Nice white shark populations, as an example, have recovered because the Nineteen Nineties across the U.S. after being added to the Appendix II checklist in 2005, even though different populations within the northwest Atlantic and South Pacific are nonetheless regarded as in the neighborhood endangered.
Tope and smooth-hound sharks had been additionally added to the Appendix II checklist in 2025 for defense from the industry in their meat and fins.
A number of species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, odd-shaped rays that seem like they’ve a mixture of shark and ray options and feature been harmed by way of native and industrial fishing, finning and industry, had been assigned a CITES “zero-quota” designation to briefly curtail all industry of their species till their populations get better.
An Atlantic guitarfish (Rhinobatus lentiginosus) swims within the Gulf of Mexico.
SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Number of Brandi Noble/Flickr, CC BY
Those world protections carry consciousness of species, save you industry and overexploitation and will lend a hand save you species from going extinct.
Drawing consideration to hardly ever noticed species
Globally, there are about 550 species of shark lately and round 600 species of rays (or batoids), the flat-bodied shark family.
Many of those species be afflicted by their anonymity: The general public are unfamiliar with them, and efforts to offer protection to those extra difficult to understand, much less cuddly ocean population battle to attract consideration.
So, how will we persuade other people to care sufficient to lend a hand give protection to animals they have no idea exist? And are we able to put in force world protections when maximum shark-human interactions are geographically restricted and incessantly improve livelihoods of native communities?
Expanding other people’s consciousness of ocean species in danger, together with sharing wisdom about why their numbers are falling and the essential roles they play of their ecosystem, can lend a hand.
The brand new protections for sharks and rays underneath CITES additionally be offering hope that extra world rules protective those and different shark and rays species will practice.
