Marine conservationists have welcomed the official listing of devil rays and thresher and silky sharks under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) Appendix II.
The proposals, put forward at the recent CITES #CoP17 World Wildlife Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, were supported by more than the two-thirds majority of countries (parties to the convention) required for adoption.
CITES Appendix II obliges the parties to maintain international trade restrictions to ensure that exports are sustainable and legal. They now have six months to implement the new obligations for the nine species of devil ray, and one year to do the same for silky and the three species of thresher sharks.
“This is a big win for all these species of sharks and rays, as governments around the world will now have to act to ensure that trade is from sustainable and legal fisheries,” said Andy Cornish of the WWF.
While welcoming the silky shark listing, Ali Hood of the Shark Trust emphasised that “complementary fishing limits and measures to reduce incidental catch are key to the effective conservation of this species”.
Commenting on the thresher protection, Ania Budziak of Project AWARE said: “We are grateful that governments recognise the value of healthy thresher shark populations for both fisheries and tourism.”
And with respect to the rays, Sonja Fordham of Shark Advocates International commented: “We are elated by the resounding support for safeguarding the devil rays, some of the oceans’ most vulnerable animals.” Devil rays are exceptionally susceptible to overfishing because they have only one pup every two or three years.
Steps were also agreed at the conference to improve the traceability of shark and ray products.
Project AWARE, Shark Advocates International, Shark Trust, TRAFFIC, Wildlife Conservation Society, and WWF are working in partnership to promote the ray and shark listing proposals, with support from the Paul G Allen Family Foundation.
There are 183 parties to CITES, and #CoP17 was said to be the largest-ever meeting of its kind, with 152 governments taking decisions on 62 species-listing proposals submitted by 64 countries. More than 3500 people attended the conference, which CITES itself hailed as “a game-changer”.
Factsheets on the 13 shark and ray species listed can be found here
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11-Oct-16
