25 Percent of Sharks and Rays Face 'Alarming' Threat of Extinction: Study Dominique Mosbergen - The Huffington Post
go to original January 22, 2014

A staggering percentage of the world's sharks and rays are now "alarmingly" close to the brink of extinction, according to the a new study spearheaded by the Shark Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The study - said to be first global analysis of the conservation status of 1,041 shark, ray and related species - found that at least one in every four existing species of sharks and rays may soon be wiped off the face of the planet. The shrinking numbers are largely due to overfishing, the researchers said.

"Our analysis shows that sharks and their relatives are facing an alarmingly elevated risk of extinction,” said Dr. Nick Dulvy, one of the study's co-authors, according to a media release. “In greatest peril are the largest species of rays and sharks, especially those living in shallow water that is accessible to fisheries."

A collaborative project that involved more than 300 experts from 64 countries, the study also found that chondrichthyes - the class of cartilaginous fish (so-called because their skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bone) that includes sharks, rays and chimaeras - are at a "substantially higher risk than most other groups of animals and have the lowest percentage of species considered safe - with only 23 percent categorized as 'Least Concern.'"

Researchers say they were also troubled to find that rays are generally even more threatened than sharks are. Rays like sawfish, wedgefish, guitarfish and stingray, for instance, are among the top 10 most-threatened families of chondrichthyes.

To read the full IUCN study on sharks and rays, click here.



Read the rest at The Huffington Post

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