Making Way for Sharks and Rays: Where Do We Go From Here?
SHOW NOTES
The conversations that shape the fate of sharks and rays rarely happen in quiet laboratories or out at sea. More often, they unfold in fluorescent-lit halls, behind nameplates and microphones, inside sprawling congress centres where global decisions about nature are made. At the IUCN World Conservation Congress, surrounded by thousands of delegates debating the future of biodiversity, host Isla sat down with SOSF Scientific Advisor Sarah Fowler and Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, Dr Rima Jabado, to discuss how far we’ve come in the race to save sharks and rays from extinction – and what steps we need to take next to ensure their future on this planet.
Both Rima and Sarah spend a lot of their time at these international meetings fighting for sharks and rays to be prioritised in global commitments and legislation [06.41]. The IUCN World Conservation Congress brought together thousands of experts from all corners of the globe, each with their own species, group or habitat requiring attention from world leaders. Rima explains, “I feel you talk to people and everybody has that same feeling – ‘my species are the most threatened’.” As Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, Rima’s role is to communicate the urgency needed to address the extinction crisis sharks and rays are facing. “The Red List of Threatened Species is very clear… sharks and rays are up there,” she says.
For Sarah, their importance goes even deeper [07.46]. As a founding member of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, the UK-based charity The Shark Trust and the European Elasmobranch Association, Sarah has been instrumental in the development and implementation of foundational protections for sharks and rays on a world stage. She argues that sharks and rays, given their widespread distribution across a diversity of habitats, are a gateway to conservation for other marine species, and the wider ocean. “They are these flagship species,” she explains. “If sharks and rays are in good condition, pretty well everything else should be too.”
Thanks to the tireless efforts of people like Sarah and Rima, we have come a long way in shark and ray conservation in a relatively short time. But getting here has been far from easy [09.03]. When Sarah first became involved in IUCN Red List assessments decades ago, even the idea that fish could go extinct was controversial. “We had so many noisy discussions about how fish can’t go extinct!” she says. Back then, data were scarce, and confidence in extinction risk assessments even scarcer. “… we underestimated the extinction risk to a lot of species because people could not get their head around the idea that sharks could go extinct,” she continues.
Twenty years since that first assessment, the amount of available evidence has grown – as has the number of people working in shark science around the world. As a result, we have a clearer picture of just how dire the situation is for sharks and rays [11.48]. “We went from about a quarter of species considered threatened with extinction in 2014, to 37.5 percent [in 2024],” says Rima. “And it was because…we filled these gaps, we had so much new information about the impact of fisheries on species.” And the message is clear – whether in coastal or deeper waters, the expansion and industrialisation of fisheries is the primary driving force of declines in shark and ray populations.
Despite this progress, there remains significant gaps in our knowledge [12.14]. “It is far worse and potentially even worse than we think, because for many species we still don’t have the information,” explains Rima. “We still have a good…over almost 15 % of species that are data deficient, so we actually don’t know if they are threatened or if they’re not threatened.” Even in countries thought to have a good knowledge base, like the UK and Australia, research into sharks and rays is diminishing. “… people have simply stopped working on sharks and rays,” Rima continues. “So we have nothing to inform trends in over a decade.”
Despite these challenges, the last decade has seen huge steps forwards in terms of policy [14.12]. For example, many more shark species are now listed on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Perhaps one of the most significant achievements was the listing of the entire family of requiem sharks on Appendix II of the convention, bringing 90% of the international fin trade under regulation. “[This] means that it has to be sustainable, legal and traceable. That’s new, that’s huge,” says Sarah. “And now CITES is turning its focus more onto the trade in shark meat, which is another important use of sharks and rays. It’s another driver of population depletion and potentially extinction risk.” There has also been progress in other multi-lateral agreements, such as the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), meaning that countries that have signed up to the convention now have an obligation to work together and coordinate conservation action across their borders. “A massive change has been the sheer number of people engaged in that process,” Sarah adds. “Particularly…the numbers of young people becoming engaged in this is just inspiring.”
Rima agrees on celebrating these landmark developments, but also highlights that the listings by themselves are not enough [17.55]. “Listing has now become easier… but unless we move to that next step — how do we support countries in making sure that these listings are implemented?” she says. Looking forward, the next priorities for sharks and rays are in the implementation of legislation – in compliance, training, and enforcement. “Most countries have not updated their legislation to protect those species,” Rima notes, “and many of these species have now been listed for over 10 years… but they’re still being caught and landed.” It’s not enough, she argues, to write rules on paper — it must result in change on the ground.
And this is where collaboration becomes critical [26.49]. For Sarah, a disconnect between environmental and fisheries departments has haunted conservation for decades. “We have fisheries people in one silo, and environment people in another,” she says.
“They don’t speak to each other. They are suspicious of each other.” The solution, she says, sounds deceptively simple: “people actually entering the same room and talking to each other.” But, as with everything that involves our own species, the reality is surprisingly complicated.
Amid this complexity, one initiative offers hope: the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) Atlas, led by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group [28.24]. It is a global effort to identify critical habitats for sharks and rays, collating all the available evidence to provide information that can inform spatial measures. “One of the big things was that there’s a huge push to protect areas, so 30 % of the ocean by 2030 – that’s in five years,” Rima explains. “And governments have started declaring new marine protected areas. And what we found was that the current existing areas often completely overlook habitats that are critical for sharks and rays. We took an approach that had already been established by the marine mammals, the birds, and developed the criteria that were relevant, which are under the important shark and ray areas project. We’ve been going region by region, working with experts to gather that knowledge and put these areas on a map.”
The process involves expert-led workshops for particular regions, where candidate ISRAs are identified and assessed. Sarah describes participating in the North Atlantic ISRA workshop as transformative: “There was so much energy… having information collated from across the region… it was astonishing.” But these workshops can also expose major gaps. “We’ve noticed this trend that it’s really everybody’s working on whale sharks… and white sharks,” Rima says.
“but deep water species, range restricted species… nobody is working on them.”
As well as working to fill critical knowledge gaps, both Rima and Sarah agree that the next decade must focus not just on protection, but on people [31.04]. Sarah turns the spotlight to early-career scientists in developing regions. “We need to think about how we foster the new generation of conservationists,” she says, “so that we don’t lose the good people.”Too many leave science because it cannot sustain their lives. “They drop out, they into some other line of work, because they have families to support and bills to pay…I think there needs be greater awareness of just how important sharks and rays are to livelihoods, to survival, to putting shoes on your kids’ feet so that they can go to school.” Rima agrees, and emphasises the need to build local capacity: “There are fantastic early career scientists that are coming out of these regions of the world – from Africa, from South America, from Asia – where some of the largest fisheries for sharks and rays exist…and we need to empower them to collect the information that is needed to make an informed policy. And right now, they often don’t have that. They’re interested in sharks and rays but they don’t know what to do and giving them those opportunities to learn and to engage in this process.”
Sustainable, transformative conservation also means addressing issues in food security [34.08]. Sharks and rays are vital sources of income and protein for many coastal communities,
“and if we don’t do something now [about shark and ray declines]… that food security issue is going to explode in a few years,” adds Rima. This means conservation cannot be imposed. It must be built with communities. “Working with them and understanding what solutions they see as viable,” says Rima.
Beyond our coastlines, however, lies the high seas, where implementation and enforcement are even more of a challenge. But, a new opportunity has appeared in the BBNJ (High Seas) Treaty [42.37]. Rima is hopeful, but cautious. “I’m saying cautiously optimistic,” she says, noting that fisheries mandates still remain complex and politically sensitive. For her, the key is representation.“One of the reasons that sharks were ignored for such a long time is that the right voices were not in the room,” she reflects. Now, she says, those voices are finally arriving — and they must stay there.
Sarah looks back on the last decade with fondness for all the passionate people she has worked with over the years [45.56].“It’s been such a privilege to have had the opportunity to do that,” she says, “and I promise I have got so much more back from everyone I’ve encountered.” Her journey, she emphasises, was never hers alone — it belonged to a global community of scientists, fishers, advocates and decision-makers. And Rima, standing in the next chapter of this story, carries that legacy forward — across conference halls, coastal communities and negotiating tables — trying to turn science into action. “I think if we make sure that we have the right voices in the rooms during the negotiations that are coming up, we will be able to make a difference.”
ABOUT OUR GUESTS
Sarah Fowler, OBE
Scientific advisor
Sarah Fowler is a scientific advisor for Save Our Seas Foundation and founding trustee of the Shark Trust, which is a UK member of the European Elasmobranch Association. Sarah has worked in marine ecology, conservation and management for over 30 years, and has worked in various capacities for government departments, national and international NGOs and a biodiversity consultancy. She was chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Group for many years and is now its vice-chair for international treaties. She is also co-founder of the European Elasmobranch Association and was appointed a pew fellow in marine conservation in 2005. In 2004 she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to marine conservation.
Dr Rima Jabado
Chair, IUCN Shark Specialist Group
Dr Rima Jabado is the Deputy Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) and Chair of the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group. As a scientist and conservationist, she has spent over 20 years developing and working on conservation initiatives globally. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between science and policy to ensure issues such as bycatch, threatened species conservation, and illegal trade are tackled. Her research has been instrumental in influencing decision makers to implement meaningful measures for the protection of species across a range of fisheries. She is now leading the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project to ensure sharks, rays, and chimaeras are considered in area-based management initiatives around the world. She is a member of the IUCN Marine Conservation Committee, serves as the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) Appointed Scientific Councilor for Fish, and sits on the Advisory Committee for the CMS Sharks Memorandum of Understanding as the representative of the Asia region. She has also founded the Elasmo Project, a non-profit initiative that encourages and supports work in data-poor areas focused on investigating shark and ray fisheries and trade.
