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Quarter of northeast Atlantic sharks, rays threatened with extinction: report
The release of the first ever IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessment of northeast Atlantic sharks, rays and chimaeras reveals that 26 percent are threatened with extinction and another 20 percent are in the Near Threatened category.
- Agencies
- Published: 13:54 November 10, 2008
Switzerland: The release of the first ever IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessment of northeast Atlantic sharks, rays and chimaeras reveals that 26 percent are threatened with extinction and another 20 percent are in the Near Threatened category.
The total number of threatened species may well be higher as there was insufficient information to assess more than a quarter (27 percent) of the species.
The report, released by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG), reveals that shark, ray and chimaera species are much more threatened in the northeast Atlantic than they are globally. Specifically, seven percent of species in the northeast Atlantic are classified as Critically Endangered, seven percent as Endangered, and 12 percent as Vulnerable, primarily due to overfishing. This means 26 percent are threatened in the northeast Atlantic, compared with 18 percent globally.
“Most sharks and rays are exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing because of their tendency to grow slowly, mature late, and produce few young. Those at greatest risk of extinction in the northeast Atlantic include heavily fished, large sharks and rays, like porbeagle and common skate, as well as commercially valuable deepwater sharks and spiny dogfish.''
The European Union (EU) has provided species-specific fishing limits for only four of the region's 116 sharks, rays and chimaeras. Basking and great white sharks are legally protected in the EU. Catch limits for spiny dogfish and porbeagle sharks exist, but are regularly set in excess of scientific advice.
The report is the result of a regional workshop to evaluate the status of the northeast Atlantic's shark, ray and chimaera species using the IUCN Red List Categories and CriteriaTM. Experts from government agencies, universities and private institutions in the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Russia, Sweden, Canada and the USA participated in the regional workshop.
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