IUCN Shark Specialist Group nears the end of Global Shark Trends project.
Giant guitarfishes and wedgefishes, collectively called Rhino Rays, are now the world’s most threatened marine fish, based on new Red List assessments released today by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group (SSG). All but one of the 16 warm-water, shark-like ray species are assessed as Critically Endangered due primarily to overfishing for meat and fins.
The Shark Specialist Group (SSG) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) today released updated Red List Assessments for 58 species of sharks and rays, 17 of which were classified as threatened with extinction. The results are part of a global project to assess population trends based on a series of expert workshops, the first of which focused on Australian species as well as oceanic species found worldwide.
Shark Specialists Put Spotlight on Brazil in Strategy to Protect World’s Most Threatened Ray Tonight at the Sharks International conference, the Shark Specialist Group (SSG) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports on progress and new priorities associated with their Global Strategy to save the sawfishes, the world’s largest and most threatened rays.
New study identifies conservation priorities based on evolutionary history and biogeography. To shine light on and conserve rare shark, ray, and chimaera species (chondrichthyans), SFU researchers have developed a fully-resolved family tree and ranked every species according to the unique evolutionary history they account for.
Results from the 2017 IUCN Regional Red List assessment of 153 species of chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) indicate the Arabian Sea and adjacent waters are home to some of the most threatened chondrichthyan populations in the world.
The last populations of the iconic Angelshark Squatina squatina can now only be seen in the Canary Islands. Once found along the coast of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea (from Scandinavia to northwest Africa), this species is now Critically Endangered (as assessed by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) and has been lost from much of its previous distribution.
