Shark Protections Highlighted at CITES Meeting

With awareness growing of the need to protect shark species, governments around the world continue to step up to ensure the proper management of commercially traded shark species listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). That work continued at the 30th Meeting of the CITES Animals Committee in Geneva from July 16 to 20. The Senegal government, in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts and Paul G. Allen Philanthropies, hosted a panel discussion on how governments are implementing measures to comply with shark and ray listings on CITES Appendix II, which means those species can be traded internationally, but only if the trade does not cause detriment to the species in the wild. The panel also highlighted tools that can help governments enforce these listings even more effectively.

Steve De Neef

Senegal and Cape Verde gave brief presentations on measures they have taken to comply with the listings on sharks. The panel also discussed a series of shark and ray identification training workshops that have taken place around the world to help governments enforce these listings. The workshops included technical guidance on development of non-detriment findings—the critical analyses needed before conducting international trade in any CITES listed species.

Since 2013, CITES Parties have been working tirelessly to ensure that commercially traded shark species listed in CITES are managed properly. Governments and nongovernmental organizations have hosted workshops in countries such as the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Sri Lanka, and Senegal and created tools, including guides and posters, for visually identifying species by their fins. Pew and its partners also distributed a manual showcasing genetic approaches for identifying products in trade. These tools, along with a recently developed DNA toolkit, will help customs and CITES enforcement officers around the world verify suspected CITES-listed sharks in trade even faster. They are key to successful implementation of CITES listings and are helping the Parties enforce these measures.

The Pew Charitable Trusts

Even with these encouraging trends, many shark populations around the world continue to decline, with some species overfished for their fins and other products. Now more than ever, governments must come together to comply with existing measures and advocate for expanded protections for sharks and rays wherever they roam.

KerriLynn Miller works on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ global shark conservation project.