The ISRA zone projects on the coast of the Central and Southern America region have passed a first evaluation; the final decision was made in August 2023. This article highlighted the ISRAs in the region on La Verdad.
A news article on the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) workshop in the Mediterranean and Black Sea was featured in Monaco Life. This article highlights the 85 ISRAs delineated in as a result of the workshop.
Five-day workshop on ISRA concludes with 85 areas to consider.
A news article on the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) workshop in the Central and Southern America region was featured in Mongabay. This article highlights the ISRAs delineated in Mexico and Chile.
New podcast released by the World of Sharks Podcast interviews Rima Jabado, Emiliano García Rodríguez and Ciaran Hyde of the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) team to discuss the project, what it is, its goals, and achievements thus far.
The first ever region region targeted by the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project covered the Central and South American Pacific (Region 12). This regional expert workshop was held in in Bogota, Colombia from 3-7 October 2022. This compendium provides an overview of all areas delineated.
«Overall, delineating Important Shark and Ray Areas globally will transform shark conservation and contribute to reducing mortality in this highly threatened group.»
«Initiatives have been developed for specific taxa, such as birds (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas) and marine mammals (Important Marine Mammal Areas) and for biodiversity more generally (Key Biodiversity Areas and Ecological or Biologically Significant Marine Areas). These approaches are now well accepted and utilized in spatial and conservation planning. Until recently, such an approach had yet to focus on sharks and their relatives, the rays and chimaeras (hereafter collectively referred to as sharks), one of the most threatened faunal lineages (37% of species are categorized as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List).»
The Shark and Ray Recovery Initiative (SARRI) and Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) are two different projects with strong synergy and opportunities to achieve more. As a result of the partnership between leading conservationists and scientists – including members of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Elasmo Project, James Cook University (JCU), and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) – SAARI aims to recover 23 Endangered and Critically Endangered species in some of their last hotspots by introducing ‘shark recovery zones’ in the next decade.
The identification of ISRAs is achieved through the application of scientifically based criteria. The ISRA Criteria were developed to provide a framework to objectively identify areas of importance to sharks, crucial for their persistence and, where required, recovery.
Available in: EN and ES
A newly released peer-reviewed paper in Frontiers in Marine Science emphasises that establishing measures to address the global decline in Chondrichthyes is more urgent than ever. The paper, “Putting sharks on the map: a global standard for improving shark area-based conservation,” outlines a set of standardized criteria for Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) that can support management considerations to reverse the loss of sharks globally and integrate these into area-based planning.
