Background

The last decade has seen the development of a number of important conservation and management successes for selected chondrichthyans: the CITES listings of sawfishes and white, basking, and whale sharks; the listing of 7 species on the Convention of Migratory Species; the generation of FAO recommended National Plans of Action, and the implementation of finning bans by an increasing number of countries and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. These successes were arguably opportunistic and relied heavily on the expertise of relatively few key individuals. A more coordinated and strategic approach to the conservation and management of chondrichthyans would arguably be even more successful, indeed essential, if we are to respond to the scale of the problem. So far only a handful of species have any form of effective protection or management after a decade of effort – yet there are at least 181 threatened species requiring urgent attention.

There are few active scientists and experts working on chondrichthyan science and conservation – only around 300 contributed to the Red List assessment of over one thousand individual species. This fundamentally limits the capacity of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group network and the wider science and conservation community. There is an urgent need to undertake prioritization activities to decide which species to focus attention on and which conservation and management opportunities would provide the greatest return on our investment. We urgently need to protect and manage shark fisheries and trade in a sustainable manner and the recent failure to list a number of shark and tuna species at CITES shows the scale of this challenge. The next stages for the conservation, management and protection community are twofold: to identify specific opportunities for the conservation, management and protection of chondrichthyans at national, regional and international scales and to implement and enforce these measures.

Aims and Objectives

We aim to develop a strategic plan to secure the conservation of sharks, rays and chimaeras. This symposium and strategic plan will seek to identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities among the suite of agencies, organizations and policies that contribute to shark conservation.

The three key objectives are to:

• Identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities among the suite of agencies, organizations and policies that contribute to shark conservation
• Develop a strategic shark conservation plan
• Communicate this strategic plan