In September 2016 representatives from 182 member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and international stakeholder organisations will arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP). The conference will run from 24 September to 5 October and delegates will negotiate the listing of new species by CITES, which regulates international trade in endangered species in order to conserve global biodiversity.
The last conference, held in 2013, was significant for the protection it offered elasmobranchs. Five shark species and all manta rays were included in Appendix II, joining sawfishes and other sharks that had already been included in the CITES Appendices over the past decade. This year, four shark species and all mobula rays are on the agenda for the same Appendix. In order to be adopted, proposals will need the support of a two-thirds majority. Once a species has been listed, parties will require a permit to trade in it, and in order to acquire such a permit they will have to demonstrate that products from the relevant species were obtained legally and harvested at sustainable levels. This year the call to protect elasmobranchs is being led by three island nations. The Maldives is proposing silky sharks, which have been in serious decline for the past 20 years. Apart from some national shark sanctuaries and fishing bans within two regional fisheries, there is currently no fisheries management for silky sharks, whose fins make up 3.5% of the trade in shark fins.
Another proposal on behalf of shark species will also come from the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka will propose that the three species of thresher shark be added to Appendix II. The nation is a range state for all three species and already affords them full protection in domestic waters. Because of declining thresher shark populations, two Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), have also prohibited the catching of these species on the high seas of the Atlantic and Indian oceans respectively. Since the fins of bigeye thresher sharks in their traded form look very similar to those of pelagic and common thresher sharks, Sri Lanka is proposing the pelagic and common thresher as ‘look-alike’ species.
The third island nation is Fiji, which will champion the listing of mobula rays – specifically Mobula japanica and M. tarapacana, but also all other mobula species for the same look-alike reason as thresher sharks. Populations of mobula species are showing particularly strong declines, and because the products (gill plates) of mobulas look very similar to one another and to the gill plates of manta rays (which were listed on CITES Appendix II in 2013), it is necessary to protect all nine species. Mobula rays require urgent attention because new data reveal that they are as vulnerable as manta rays and are being increasingly targeted in the gill plate trade.
These three proposals are expected to receive strong support from a number of countries around the world. The tools to identify the proposed shark and ray species are already available and, as in the case of the previously listed elasmobranchs, they are extremely easy to use. The fins and gill plates can be visually identified and can also be confirmed by genetic analysis for prosecution purposes when required. Several international organisations, including the Manta Trust, have offered their full scientific and technical support to proponents and range states of listed and newly proposed species and are actively raising awareness of the threats that these species are facing globally.
Having started out in the Maldives, the Manta Trust is now active in about 16 countries worldwide promoting the conservation of manta and devil rays and their habitat through research, awareness and education. Three of its current major operations are the Global Mobulid ID Project, which aims to provide a taxonomic, morphological and genetic identification guide to manta and devil rays; the collection of data about ray landings in India, which will inform conservation management in that country; and the Indonesian Manta Project, which works to promote an appreciation of manta and devil rays among local people.