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Ocean Unite

KEY ISSUES

SHARKS AND RAYS

manta ray

Forget Jaws, it’s the sharks that should be afraid! We kill over 100 million of them every year through bycatch or for their meat and fins. Every year, 800 people are killed by toasters, 1.25 million by cars and 283 by planes. 5 people are killed by sharks. As top Ocean predators – not to mention lucrative tourist attractions – sharks are worth far more alive than dead; it should not take their extinction for us to figure that out. Sharks and rays need local sanctuaries, regional management, international protection, and changing cultural perceptions of products like shark fin soup and ray gill plates, if these magnificent animals are to survive.

TALKING POINTS

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  • Sharks and their cousins – rays – are enormously threatened by overfishing and illegal fishing.
  • These beautiful marine animals, which are essential for Ocean health, are becoming severely depleted with as yet, unknown repercussions.
  • Just like top predators on land keep an ecosystem in balance, so too do sharks across the Ocean. Healthy reefs need sharks and healthy reefs are not only critical for healthy fish populations which in turn help ensure food security for coastal populations, but they also help shore-up resilience to climate change impacts like major storm events.
  • The numbers of sharks killed each year are staggering – with recent studies estimating that at least 100 million sharks are killed each and every year from reported and unreported landings, discards, and shark finning (Worm et al. 2013, Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks).
  • A recent study documents an alarming, ongoing, worldwide decline in oceanic shark and ray populations since 1970, as overfishing has far outpaced the implementation of fisheries management and trade regulations, leading to a 71% in oceanic sharks and rays.
  • The depletion of sharks and rays has increased the global extinction risk to the point at which three-quarters of oceanic shark and ray species are threatened with extinction under the Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
  • Some formerly abundant, wide-ranging sharks have declined so steeply that they are now classified in the two highest IUCN Red List threatened categories: three are critically endangered (oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) and great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran)), and four are endangered (pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus), dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus), shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) and longfin mako (Isurus paucus)).
  • It is not only oceanic sharks and rays that are threatened, with sharks “functionally extinct” from one in five of the world’s coral reefs. Overfishing, driven largely by dense human populations and poor governance is the primary driver of the decline.
  • Both sharks and rays are deliberately hunted for fins, body parts (for traditional Asian medicine cures) for their meat, bones, oil and cartilage.
  • But the main reason for shark declines: their fins are valuable commercially and are principally used in shark fin soup, an important dish in China, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries and territories.
  • This issue is not about vilifying a culture or way of life but is simple arithmetic – sharks will become extinct at the current rates of exploitation.
  • A combination of their being long-lived, slow to reproduce with few offspring compared with most other fish species and the global onslaught from fishing that they face, is hindering their survival in the face of these threats.
  • Without immediate action, many of the large sharks in the world will face global extinction in the coming decades.
  • The lack of available data – sharks don’t have passports and are hard to track – results in little to no management of shark populations, and so overfishing continues. Sharks simply cannot keep up with the current rate of exploitation.
  • Sharks are worth more alive than dead for economies – this of particular relevance for tourism destinations. A live reef shark can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars in dive tourism revenue over the course of its lifetime. A dead shark can fetch a one-time payment of a couple of hundred dollars.
  • In Palau, the estimated value of a live reef shark for the tourism industry is US$1.9 million per year. The estimated value of a reef shark caught and killed is US$109. (Vianna et al. 2011, Wanted dead or alive: The relative value of reef sharks as a fishery and an ecotourism asset in Palau).
  • Shark and ray conservation requires action at local, regional and international levels due to the international nature and complexity of the trade, their migratory patterns, and the mobility of the global fishing fleet.
  • Countries around the world export shark products to various hubs, with Hong Kong the current global hub of the shark fin trade.
  • In China, a concerted effort by government and conservation groups has reduced Chinese consumption of shark fins by 80% in the past decade.
  • Many businesses have taken shark fin out of their supply chain. The Asian business community in particular has led the way.
  • A group of Chinese entrepreneurs spearheaded the call to ban shark fin from Chinese government banquets, and the Shangri-La and Peninsula hotel groups were the first to publicly announce their decision to remove shark fin from menus. With these accounting for up to 50% of all shark fin soup served in China, this was a huge step.
  • Today, many more hotels have removed shark fin from their menus, with the Marriott and Hilton recent additions. More should follow suit.
  • Airlines are also refusing to transport shark fin and other shark products. Since Cathay Pacific announced its restrictive cargo policy on the transport of shark fin in September 2012, 45 airlines have followed suit, including Air China, which is the first Chinese mainland carrier to ban shark fin cargo.
  • Shipping companies are also starting to follow suit, with 17 shipping lines prohibiting the transport of shark fin and other shark and ray products. FedEx remains one of the companies that have yet to stop transporting shark products.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?

  • Saving sharks will take a multi-pronged approach.
  • World leaders have begun to stand up and take action to protect sharks and keep them in the world’s Ocean. To date (March 2021), 17 countries’ entire exclusive economic zone (EEZ) waters have been designated as “shark sanctuaries” where shark fishing and trade is prohibited.
  • Small island nations – big Ocean states – such as the Bahamas, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Maldives, French Polynesia and the Dominican Republic have led the way on shark protection, and continue to be shark champions because they understand how vital sharks are to their economies.
  • Countries are also beginning to take measures to protect rays and many shark sanctuaries also protect rays. (Peru/Indonesia, Mexico, Ecuador, and the U.S. State of Hawaii).
  • A number of conservation groups and experts have developed a 10-year strategy to prevent shark extinctions and ensure that shark fishing becomes sustainable and responsible. The goal: by 2025, the conservation status of the world’s sharks and rays has improved – declines have been halted, extinctions have been prevented, and commitments to their conservation have increased globally.
  • Local protections like shark sanctuaries; bans on the catching of sharks and trade in shark products, in tandem with a reduction in consumption, alongside a change in the perceived status of shark fin are needed.
  • Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOS) are also implementing conservation measures to reduce the global mortality of sharks. However, their efforts thus far have not been comprehensive and they need to do much more. Bold, common sense decisions are needed now to stop the killing of sharks and rays.
  • Until measures are in place to ensure that both targeted and incidental catch of sharks is sustainable, their capture should be avoided, and they should be released alive whenever possible.
  • Fishing gear that increases the likelihood of shark catch, such as wire leaders and shark lines, should be prohibited, and research should be undertaken to determine the best means of avoiding shark catch.
  • The Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) also provides another way to ensure that the trade of shark products is well managed and sustainable. A CITES listing is a very valuable tool to protect species from overexploitation due to international trade, as well as discouraging illegal trade.
  • As of 2020, all six species of sawfish are listed under CITES Appendix I and 14 species of shark, all six species of giant guitarfish, 10 species of wedgefish and all species of eagle and mobulid rays are listed under Appendix II.
  • Listing of a species on CITES Appendix I and II obligates Parties to put in place international trade restrictions to ensure exports are sustainable and legal.
  • The momentum for international protections for sharks and rays continues to grow  and those countries that have taken out reservations against these CITES listings need to drop them.

Safiya Sawney is currently the Caribbean Policy Lead for Ocean Unite. Most recently she was the Ocean and Climate Policy Advisor to the Mission of the Republic of Palau to the United Nations representing the President of Palau at the High-Level Panel for the Sustainable Ocean Economy and leading Palau’s engagement at the UN Secretary General’s 2019 Climate Action Summit. Safiya was also the project coordinator for the UN Office of Project Services providing strategic support towards the 2020 Our Oceans Conference.

Formerly, Safiya was the lead policy advisor on a Blue Economy partnership platform between the Governments of the Netherlands and Grenada with support from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Safiya has fostered many innovative partnerships to spur action on ocean plastics and environmental awareness for small islands states including partnerships with Parley for the Ocean and Adidas, PangeaSeed, UN Environment, United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and others.

Safiya has provided policy support to Climate Analytics Inc. on Caribbean climate strategies, was the deputy coordinator for the Caribbean team that executed the 2013 Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) Summit in collaboration with Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Unite and The Nature Conservancy and served as technical advisor to Alliance of Small Island Developing States at the UN.

Jon Bassford, CAE, JD, MBA is an association and nonprofit operations professional. Jon has worked for c3 to c7 organizations across many different roles and responsibilities but has carved out an expertise as an efficient and effective operations professional. Through his consulting firm Lateral Solutions, Jon leads several organizations as a part-time operations director as well as client work in college student/campus outreach, organizational development, innovation, and strategy. Jon has truly carved out an expertise helping organizations launch and run internal operations in an efficient and effective manner using digital tools.
 
Across his membership and operational roles, Jon has 15 years of experience leading organizations.

Renee brings nearly a decade of internal operations experience to the Ocean Unite team. Prior to joining the team, Renee worked for eight years at The Pew Charitable Trusts where she began as an administrative assistant supporting their Shark, Tuna, and Whale conservation campaigns as well as the Senior Director of International Ocean Conservation. Particularly adept at identifying operational issues and developing methods to solve them, Renee moved into an operations role working across Pew’s international Ocean conservation projects, then all their environment conservation projects, and later the breadth of Pew’s programmatic work. She has degrees from California State University, San Bernardino, and Temple University in Philadelphia, and recently relocated from Washington, DC, to the California coast. As hard as this team works to protect our magnificent Ocean, Renee is the only person on the team who lives at the beach and relishes in enjoying the beauty of the Ocean every day.

Brittney is Ocean Unite’s digital and social media manager and is a consultant for Communications Inc. Comms Inc. is an agency which works with the not-for-profit sector, with a particular specialism in the ocean and wider environment. They are well known within the international ocean community and enjoy the trust of, and a working relationship with, most of the large international environmental NGOs and coalitions. Recognised for their ability to deliver fast, cost-effective and productive communications and campaigning, they are particularly valued for their strategic contribution based on a sound understanding of the issues, the political landscape within which the issues exist and a creative approach to bringing about change. (www.communicationsinc.co.uk)

One of the principals of Communications Inc., Sophie has nearly 20 years of experience in strategic communications. Comms Inc., is an agency which works with the not for profit sector, with a particular specialism in the ocean and wider environment. They are well known within the international ocean community and enjoy the trust of, and a working relationship with, most of the large international environmental NGOs and coalitions. Recognised for their ability to deliver fast, cost-effective and productive communications and campaigning, they are particularly valued for their strategic contribution based on a sound understanding of the issues, the political landscape within which the issues exist and a creative approach to bringing about change (www.communicationsinc.co.uk).

Nathalie has almost two decades of experience working in environmental advocacy. She worked for over 15 years for Greenpeace International, focusing mainly on biodiversity issues. For many years she worked as Senior Oceans Political Advisor focusing on international ocean governance and marine conservation. More recently she was the deputy director of the Political and Business Unit. She has wide experience of attending and leading delegations at international environmental meetings, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, and ocean-related negotiations at the UN General Assembly. When asked why she feels strongly about protecting the ocean, she says that not only is it home to the weirdest and most wonderful creatures on the planet, tomorrow’s life-saving drugs could be found at the bottom of the sea, not to mention the discovery of an anti-wrinkle cream that actually works!

Karen has over 25 years of experience working for international non-governmental organisations on environmental issues around the world with a particular focus on protecting marine biodiversity and building resilience to climate change. In 2015, Sack established Ocean Unite, co-founded by Sir Richard Branson and former Costa Rican President José María Figueres, to engage leadership voices and the business community to accelerate ocean health and resilience. Ocean Unite is committed to helping secure the strong protection of 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030. It has also developed a groundbreaking partnership with the insurance sector to address ocean risk.

She was senior director for international oceans at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she developed their international oceans program including their ending illegal fishing strategy and initiated and was the managing partner of the Global Ocean Commission. Before that she was head of Greenpeace International’s political and business unit and head of their international oceans programme. In 2004, she was the first person from a non-governmental organization to speak at a regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she represented the concerns of over 60 environmental organizations from around the world over the plight of our oceans. Karen is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network. She has master’s degrees in international environmental law and in international political economy.