IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

The IUCN Shark Specialist Group has recently completed the Red List assessment of all 1,044 chondrichthyan species. This was a huge undertaking that we could not have done without the remarkable assistance and dedication of our 150+ members. However, our work does not finish there. A new species of shark (shark, skate, ray or chimaera) is identified every two weeks and we also need to start reassessing species so that we can monitor changes in Threat Status, so Red Listing will continue!

As a follow up to a series of Red List workshops, we have published a number of influential status reports for regions including the Mediterranean, the North East Atlantic, and Australia, and on key ecological groups, such as migratory, deepwater and pelagic species. These reports have been widely publicised in the media and through internet outlets.

These reports have led to increased conservation awareness and, in several cases, to improved policies. For example, in 2008, the SSG Red List report for the North East Atlantic served to support two major policy developments: new EU protections for four of the region's threatened shark and ray species and the addition of six threatened species to the Oslo-Paris Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Northeast Atlantic List of Threatened and Declining Species and Habitats. In addition, the Mediterranean report has been heavily cited in the development of that region's Chondrichthyan Action Plan. SSG findings have also been key to all proposals to list shark and ray species under the Appendices of the Convention on Migratory Species and CITES. The SSG and its members routinely provide advice on the conservation and management of sharks at local, regional and international policy levels.

To find out more see the Group's website.

Elasmobranchs belong to the Class Chondrichthyes, an ancient group of fishes with skeletons of cartilage and teeth of modified scales. Until recently, very few elasmobranchs had been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The 1996 Red List included only 32, but in 1999, assessments were prepared for over 100 species for inclusion in the 2000 IUCN Red List. There is still a long way to go, however, before we have a balanced overview of the approximately 1,000 species. The 2000 Red List has 19 species in the Vulnerable category, 17 in Endangered and 4 in Critically Endangered. Among those of particular concern are the basking shark and sawfishes.

At up to 10m in length, this plankton-feeding shark (Cetorhinus maximus), named for its habit of 'basking' on the surface, is the second largest fish in the world. The species is particularly sensitive to exploitation because of its low birth rate, slow growth and maturity, and low abundance. The species' population has been declining in areas where it has been exploited for many decades. Most recorded fisheries for the species have collapsed during the past 40 years, but the extremely high value of their fins provide strong incentives to keep coming back. The species is only protected over a limited part of its range and no fisheries are properly managed. It seems likely that an overall worldwide population reduction of at least 20% will occur within the next 50 - 60 years. The basking shark is assessed as Vulnerable globally, with some local or regional populations in the Northeast Atlantic and North Pacific considered to be Endangered.

Sawfishes, Pristis species, are among the most threatened elasmobranchs worldwide. All seven species are suffering declines, and are listed on the 2000 Red List as either Endangered or Critically Endangered. Because of their large toothed rostrum (saw), sawfish are extremely vulnerable to entanglement in nets, and it is almost impossible to remove them without killing them. Their high-value fins and saws are traded internationally. It is a fair assumption that extensive gillnetting and trawling in coastal, estuarine and freshwater areas throughout their range are responsible for decimating sawfish populations, while freshwater and estuarine habitat loss and damage has probably also had an effect. Early accounts of the elasmobranch fauna of the Gulf of Mexico reported that sawfish were once abundant in areas where today they are rarely or never reported. Similarly, sawfishes were reportedly common until the 1950s or 1960s in most other inshore and estuarine areas of the tropics from which they have now virtually vanished. Given the lack of direct documentation of their decline, perhaps the best indirect evidence comes from Lake Nicaragua, where in the 1970s an increase in commercial fishing corresponded with a drastic population decline. Elsewhere there were relatively large catches of sawfish prior to the 1960s, followed by a period during the 1960s and 1970s when a steep decline in catches was reported. This coincided with a huge increase in gillnet fishing worldwide that began in the 1960s. Two species are listed as Critically Endangered: the largetooth sawfish (Pristis perotteti) is extremely vulnerable to bycatch in virtually all fisheries throughout its Atlantic and Eastern Pacific range, while the common sawfish (Pristis pristis), has vanished from the Mediterranean and is likely to become extinct without urgent intervention.