Overfishing threatens over one-third of all shark and ray species with extinction
In short: A global reassessment of 1,199 shark, ray, and chimera species found that 32.6% are now threatened with extinction. Researchers observed that overfishing is a universal threat to all 391 threatened species in this group, marking a significant increase from the 24% threatened in a 2014 assessment.
This study provides a critical update on the status of marine predators, revealing that the extinction risk for these species is now comparable to that of land vertebrates. The researchers achieved this by reassessing species data from the IUCN Red List. However, the study notes that much of the observed increase in threat levels results from new information being applied to previously data-deficient species.
Why it matters: The rising extinction risk for sharks and rays highlights the urgent need for science-based fishing limits and protected areas.
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Sources
- Source: Research: Dulvy et al. (2021). Overfishing drives over one-third of all sharks and rays toward a global extinction crisis. Current Biology. · cc-by
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