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.
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.
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.
Experts classify one-third of chondrichthyan fish species as threatened, urge conservation action Guitarfishes and wedgefishes are among the most threatened rays, due to the high value of their large fins. This Whitespotted Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus djiddensis) reaches over 3 metres long and is classified as Critically Endangered by IUCN.
NEW PUBLICATION
IUCN Shark Specialist Group nears the end of Global Shark Trends project.
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.
The Global Strategy for the Conservation of Sharks and Rays (2015–2025) is the product of an intensive 18-month strategic planning process incorporating extensive data analysis and synthesis, including a set of background documents, several technical workshops, and ongoing consultation and review
