Indonesia: Stakeholders plan act to protect coral reefs from coral bleaching

Desy Nurhayati Bali Daily Jakarta Post 23 Jan 14;

Several NGOs are conducting joint efforts with local communities and government agencies to formulate action plans to recover coral reefs affected by mass bleaching due to global warming.

In a recent workshop on coral bleaching, they discussed the impact of the coral bleaching in 2009 and 2010 and took lessons from the incidents to anticipate possible bleaching in the future by formulating mitigation efforts.

Besides participants from Aceh, Bali and Lombok, representatives from Malaysia and Thailand were also present to exchange ideas and experiences on dealing with coral bleaching. They also discussed how the incidents would affect marine tourism.

“It is predicted that coral bleaching incidents could become more severe and frequent, as seawater temperatures have continued to increase significantly,” said Scott Heron, marine physicist from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch.

Coral bleaching occurs when corals lose their algal symbion, zooxanthellae, due to stressful conditions. The coral tissue becomes transparent, making the corals look bleached. Without the zooxanthellae, the coral will not only lose its color, but also slowly starve to death.

In the drafted action plans, one of the main aspects in anticipating coral bleaching was to improve engagement, communication and coordination between local communities, businesses, NGOs and governments about coral reef management.

“This should also be conducted during bleaching events, by developing and disseminating information about bleaching response plans. Establishing a kind of ‘response committee’ is also needed to quickly take action to recover the bleached corals,” said Naneng Setiasih from Coral Reef Alliance.

Temporary closure of snorkeling and diving sites, or limiting the number of divers at certain locations during bleaching events, might also be needed if the bleaching was severe, she added.

Participants also shared ideas on the importance of enforcing the prevailing regulations, particularly those related to preservation and management of marine parks and fisheries.

Coral bleaching could negatively impact tourism, particularly divers’ satisfaction with reef conditions and marine life. Therefore, dive operators should also be involved in training and capacity building activities on reef management, said Derta Prabuning of Reef Check Foundation Indonesia.

“In Bali and the Gilis, monitoring training for dive operators and snorkel guides on coral bleaching and other management aspects has been conducted,” he said.

To ensure that snorkeling and diving were not damaging coral reefs, developing and implementing codes of conduct and certification programs for divers, dive operators, snorkel guides and tourism businesses was also crucial, he added.

Implementing education and outreach programs to raise awareness for snorkelers and divers was also included in the action plans.

Marine scientists have warned that coral reefs in Indonesia could experience another cycle of bleaching this year after mass bleaching was recorded in several areas around the archipelago in 2009 and 2010.

Studies show that 2010 was not a good year for reefs in Southeast Asia, since there were unusually high or prolonged summer sea temperatures resulting in mass bleaching.

For the first time since 1998, the mass bleaching has affected coral reefs across a wide area of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Bleaching has been reported in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, the Maldives and parts of east Africa.

The bleaching has reached an alarming rate, although it was patchy in some areas.

NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch Program has stated that the bleaching was very strong and could result in a lot of corals dying. An estimated 16 percent of the world’s reefs were killed during the bleaching in 1997-1998, the worst in 700 years.

In Indonesia, mass bleaching has been recorded in 20 locations, including Aceh and Padang in Sumatra, in the Thousand Islands National Park and Karimun Jawa National Park in Java, in Bali, the Gili Islands in Lombok, as well as in Wakatobi and Tomini Bay in Sulawesi, Maluku and Raja Ampat in West Papua.

Bali has up to 40 percent bleaching at Lipah Bay in Amed, Karangasem regency. Observation in Bali’s Pemuteran in April recorded 40 to 60 percent bleaching on acropora and porites.

Other bleaching events were also reported at Bali’s Menjangan Island and Labuhan Lalang, where some corals experienced bleaching, although less than 15 percent, as well as in Pemuteran at some 20 percent. In Lovina, Tejakula and Tulamben, there was bleaching of some 10 percent of corals.

A survey using the Manta tow method conducted by Reef Check in June in the Gili islands showed bleaching between 10 and 55 percent in the reef flat area, affecting seriotopora, acropora, favia, favites and porites.

Naneng further stated that there was an urgent need for reef managers to reduce all existing threats to coral reefs to ensure they had the best chance of recovering from bleaching events.

“Coral reefs in Indonesia are already under threat from destructive and overfishing, anchoring, coral mining, pollution, sedimentation and reclamation of reefs associated with coastal development. Reefs affected by these stresses have less chance of recovering from coral bleaching,” she said.

“What we can do is to reduce other environmental stressors. Some ongoing programs in Bali and the Gilis have included these aspects,” she added.

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Indonesia makes arrest in case of smuggling protected wildlife

UPI 23 Jan 14;

JAKARTA, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Indonesian officials say they arrested an international wildlife trader who specialized in smuggling baby primates, Komodo dragons and other protected wildlife.
The arrest was made in Bali by forest rangers from the Ministry of Forestry who confiscated four endangered Javan gibbons, four baby siamangs -- a type of gibbon -- and two palm cockatoos, officials said.

The alleged trader is connected to illegal wildlife trafficking rings in Russia, Singapore, Thailand, and Cyprus, the Wildlife Conservation Society's Wildlife Crimes Unit, which participated in the investigation, reported Thursday.

The trader, whose name has not been released by Indonesian officials, allegedly shipped two Komodo dragons to Thailand last month and has sent hornbill beaks and threatened turtle species to Singapore, the WCS said.

"WCS congratulates BKSDA Bali and the Jakarta National Police Investigation Division for arresting this notorious trader," WCS Executive Director for Asia Programs Joe Walston said. "This arrest sends a message that Indonesia is serious about protecting its wildlife heritage from the ravages of the illegal wildlife trade."

Javan gibbons, siamang, Komodo dragons and palm cockatoo are all strictly protected under Indonesian law, and all are listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, except for Komodo dragon which is listed as Vulnera

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'Planting trees could stop flooding'

Roger Harrabin BBC 23 Jan 14;

Britain should turn swathes of its upland pastures into woodland to help prevent flooding, according to a former environment minister, Lord Rooker.

He said new forests would slow flooding by trapping water with their roots.

The idea of "rewilding" the uplands is catching on fast as parts of Britain face repeated flooding, with more rainfall on the way.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said he would seriously consider innovative solutions like rewilding.

The government has been criticised for being slow to capitalise on the benefits of capturing rain where it falls.

'Highly effective'

Lord Rooker, a Labour peer, said too much emphasis had been attached to the look of the countryside rather than practical considerations like trapping water.

"We pay the farmers to grub up the trees and hedges; we pay them to plant the hills with pretty grass and sheep to maintain the chocolate box image, and then wonder why we've got floods," he said.

The idea of reintroducing forests into catchments has been strongly supported by several leading scientists.

The government is sponsoring a handful of catchment trials to assess the potential of the upstream areas to catch water and send it slowly downhill.

A research paper for the Environment Agency shows that some of the schemes, like partly damming streams with felled trees to cause local flooding, are highly unpredictable when employed on their own.

If they divert rainfall on to surrounding fields that can actually make flooding downstream worse if the water then flows off the fields, bypassing bends in the river.

But the study, which is not yet peer-reviewed, suggests that reintroducing flood forests to upland areas can be highly effective - and potentially much cheaper than conventional flood defences.

The author, Simon Dixon, said: "Complex forested floodplains dramatically slow water moving over them as they have an irregular surface covered by tree roots, upright tree trunks and dead wood."

He explains the process this way: "As a simple analogy during a flood many 'packets' of water are delivered to the main trunk river from all its tributaries.

"If the delivery of a single large 'packet' of water can be significantly delayed it will then arrive at the main river after the peak of the flood, and thus the main flood peak height has less 'packets' of water in it and is lower."

The best results come, he says, when rivers are partly dammed and a forest is allowed to grow on the floodplain. "This shows substantial and predictable responses in downstream flood height," he said.

'Ruined carpets'

This is exactly what would have happened if farmers had not been encouraged by government to maximise food production by felling forests to graze sheep on the uplands.

Lord Rooker got the idea of reintroducing forests from an article by the green journalist George Monbiot, who complained that farmers are subsidised to keep sheep even though the grazing animals actually make flooding worse by compacting the earth.

"Instead of a steady flow sustained around the year by trees in the hills, by sensitive farming methods, by rivers which are allowed to find their own course and their own level, to filter and hold back their waters through bends and braiding and obstructions, we get a cycle of flood and drought. We get filthy water and empty aquifers and huge insurance premiums and ruined carpets. And all of it at public expense," Mr Monbiot wrote earlier this month.

The idea of catching water upstream is strongly supported by the water and environment professional body, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).

Its spokesman Katherine Pygott has previously told BBC News: "Flooding is getting worse with changing weather patterns, but these schemes are taking a very long time and a lot of energy.

"Projects working with nature to reduce flood risk are needed right across the country - but it is complicated, with many different organisations involved, and it will need political leadership from the highest level to make it happen. So far we haven't seen that leadership."

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson told me he would give serious consideration to innovative solutions to flooding, like rewilding.

The government could theoretically encourage farmers to rewild key parts of their catchments using grants under the Common Agricultural Policy, but CIWEM say that at the moment it is much easier for farmers to get grants for wildlife protection than flood protection.

Mr Paterson had hoped to divert more cash into a fund that could be used for these sort of measures but was overruled by the prime minister after a campaign by farmers demanding to keep the maximum amount of their grants into direct payments for farming - in effect, for owning land.

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Beijing bans new refining, steel, coal power to curb pollution

Kathy Chen and David Stanway PlanetArk

The document, published on the Beijing government's official website (www.bjrd.gov.cn) on Wednesday, said the ban would take effect from March.

The policy document, approved by the local legislature last week, also commits China's capital city to cut total emissions of PM 2.5, a key component of air pollution, by 5 percent this year.

Beijing was hit by weeks of hazardous smog last January, prompting the central government to pledge tough new measures to improve air quality throughout the country and head off public disquiet about the environmental costs of economic growth.

The new measures are part of the local government's efforts to implement a pollution masterplan drawn up by the central government last September, which committed China to reduce its dependence on coal and close outdated industrial capacity.

The policy document also said the city would strive to control the total number of vehicles on its roads as well as establish zones where high-polluting fuels like coal would be banned completely.

Firms that fail to install emissions technology, or meet tough pollution standards could be fined up to 500,000 yuan ($82,600) and have their emission permit allocation cut for the following year.

Environment minister Zhou Shengxian said earlier this month that China was currently looking into establishing a nationwide trading system for pollution permits as part of its efforts to establish market mechanisms to clean up its environment.

($1 = 6.0505 Chinese yuan)

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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China could lose millions of hectares of farmland to pollution

Agriculture official says land could be taken out of production because of severe heavy metal pollution
Jennifer Duggan theguardian.com 23 Jan 14;

Millions of hectares of agricultural land in China could be withdrawn from production because of severe heavy-metal pollution, according to a Chinese agriculture official.

Chex Xiwen, the deputy director of China’s top agricultural authority said that farmland near rivers, especially which are sources of drinking water, will also be taken out of production if there is a risk of pollution from the use of fertilisers and pesticides.

The warning follows comments by the vice minister of land and resources in December, who said that an estimated 3.3 million hectares of land is polluted, most of which is in regions that produce grain.

Withdrawing so much farmland from production could have an impact on food security, an issue that has been highlighted in the first government policy document of the year. The No 1 Central Document, issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, stressed the need for improvement of the national food security system and said that China will begin pilot programmes for restoring contaminated farmland this year.

The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that 3.3m hectares of arable land is contaminated and said that farming on land almost the size of Belgium has been stopped so that the can can be “rehabilitated”. The vice minister of land and resources, Wang Shiyuan, said that much of the contaminated land is in grain-producing areas.

According to state media this accounts for approximately 2% of China’s total farmland. The environmental protection ministry has estimated that 12 million tonnes of grain are polluted by heavy metals every year.

Concerns among the Chinese public have been growing in recent years over the extent of soil pollution caused by overuse of fertilizers and pesticides and contamination by heavy metals from industry. While soil pollution is more difficult to verify and tackle than other forms of pollution, there have been frequent reports of incidents. In May 2013, it was reported that rice grown in China’s central Hunan province was found to be contaminated with cadmium.

Soil pollution such as air and water pollution is becoming more widely discussed and there is increasingly more open debate within state media. Earlier this month, the 21st Century Business Herald, a business newspaper in China, called for a database on soil pollution to be made public and said that people had been “kept in the dark about the serious health threat for too long.”

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Jan 14

Butterflies of Pulau Ubin Part 2
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Butterflies Galore! : Lime Butterfly
from Butterflies of Singapore

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Indonesia: Monkey Hordes Threaten Farmers’ Livelihoods

Ari Susanto Jakarta Globe 23 Jan 14;

Klaten. Dozens of monkeys have descended the slopes of Mount Merapi in Central Java to ransack fields for food in the district of Klaten, leaving farmers facing the prospect of a failed crop.

Hordes of monkeys rushed farms in the Kali Woro area of Klaten’s Balerante village and helped themselves to both ripe and unripe crops of corn, cassava and various vegetables and fruits.

Since the Merapi eruptions in 2010 that destroyed much of their natural habitat and with it their food supply, the long-tailed macaques have taken to invading smallholdings in large numbers in search of nutrition.

Sukono, the Balerante village chief, said many farmers had grown frustrated and were trying to find ways to deal with the problem without harming the animals.

One plan they came up with involved planting several fruit trees in the forest to provide food for the monkeys and reduce the raids on the farms.

“But we abandoned the plan because we were worried we would be violating the law, since the forest falls inside the Mount Merapi National Park zone, which is off-limits to cultivating and logging. So instead, we are left using sticks to chase the monkeys away,” Sukono said.

Another method that the village considered was installing nets over each plot to prevent the monkeys from getting at the crops. But the hilly ground of the village would make it too difficult and costly to apply, Sukono said.

Bambang Haryono, the head of Kemalang subdistrict, which includes Balerante, said the marauding monkeys had also targeted four other villages — Tangkil, Sidorejo, Tegalmulyo and Kemalang.

“Dozens of monkeys come and go, but we still have no solution. We have no idea how much money we are losing,” he said.

Novianto Bambang, the Forestry Ministry’s conservation director, told the Jakarta Globe that planting hardwood fruit trees in the national park was recommended as it would be a fair solution for both farmers and monkeys.

“Cultivating fruit plants in certain zones within the part is permitted, but not in restricted core and jungle zones. This will help to significantly curb the monkey raids as they will find food without having to leave the mount area,” he said.

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Monkey business: 4 animals that lost the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 mascot job by a proboscis

Lennard Gui The Star 23 Jan 14;

Crocodiles, bats, rats – Malaysia has plenty of endangered animals that would love a job as a mascot. But even in the tourism industry, looks matter. Sadly these beasts just aren’t as cute or cuddly as a monkey with a very big nose.

Being a mascot is hard work: You’ve got to be a good luck charm, cheerleader, goodwill ambassador, look great in a costume and sell a lot of merchandise. All creatures great and small are for the most part perfect for the job – though there have been strange pairings done in the name of marketing. Reptiles, amphibians and creepy crawlies have been called on to pedal products from beer to insurance. So turning to the Proboscis monkey to entice the world to Visit Malaysia in 2014 is a hip choice.

That said the long-nosed primate – nicknamed monyet Belanda by the Indonesians because of their apparent resemblance to their former Dutch colonisers – has its work cut out. It replaces the much-loved orangutan as the face of the Tourism Ministry’s efforts. But why this monkey and not something with a bigger plush toy possibility, like the Lar gibbon or Hose’s langur or Dusky leaf monkey?

The fact is there are only 6,000 Proboscis monkeys left in the jungles of Borneo, according to wildlife conservationists. And there are several weird, wonderful things about the primate that make it an interesting choice for a mascot – its unusually large nose, its webbed feet, the fact that males challenge each other for mates and leadership by comparing penis sizes.

Still, here are four other endangered beasts struggling to survive in Malaysia that may someday prove to be mascot-worthy.

CONVEX HORSESHOE BAT

Bats have a scary PR problem: They’re feared as bloodsucking monsters and terrifying receptacles of diseases. In isolated cases, that may be true, but that doesn’t lessen their importance to ecology. Several bat species endemic to Malaysia are threatened, but the convex horseshoe bat – the least pretty of the lot – is close to extinction in the wild. These bats, with faces that look like they’ve been stepped on by horses, live in large colonies in dark caves and hollow trees. When they come flying out at suppertime, it’s the stuff of nightmares – except they’re only interested in sipping on some bugs. Sadly, four horseshoe bat species were linked to an outbreak of a SARS-like virus in China in 2005. Not the Convex, but the damage was done.

TOMISTOMA (FALSE GHARIAL)

Not much is known about the Tomistoma – also known as the Malayan gharial – a freshwater croc with a distinct long and thin snout. It was once thought that its diet consisted of fish and small vertebrates, but evidence now shows that the beast will eat fruit bats, water birds, macaques and the Proboscis monkey. On occasion, it will munch on a fisherman: In 2008, a female Tomistoma swallowed one in central Kalimantan and his remains were found in her stomach. Despite its elusive nature, the croc is as an endangered species with fewer than 2,500 adults left in the remote wetlands of Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. Hunting, logging, agriculture and an irrational fear of this creature continue to whittle down its number.

MOUNTAIN SPINY RAT

You’d think rats – ugh, these vermin could survive a nuclear war. Maybe so, but some of them can’t survive humans and they’re being slowly wiped out. Good you’d say – and you’d be wrong. Wildlife rodents, like bats, play a big part in the biology of jungles. For example, the endangered summit rat, found only in Malaysia, has a mutualistic relationship with a species of giant pitcher plants: It deposits its fertilising poop into the plant’s traps while feeding on its nectar. And the mountain spiny rat, also a Malaysian species, lives in the upper mountain block of Sabah where it snacks on roots, fruits and insects. Both species avoid any contact with people or our food. Unfortunately, you can’t say rat without thinking of the filthy sewer kind, which is truly a reservoir of parasites.

BLACK SHREW

Don’t be fooled by the shrew. It looks like a long-nosed mouse, but this shy little creature isn’t a rodent. In fact it’s related to moles. There are several threatened species in Malaysia, including the critically endangered black shrew. It was discovered on Mount Kinabalu and is the teeniest of its kind. Like moles, shrews have awful eyesight but excellent hearing and sense of smell. They forage for seeds, insects, nuts and worms, but they only have one set of teeth their entire life, so eating gets harder as they get older. Fun fact: the black shrew travels by caravanning – moving in a single file and holding the tail of the shrew in front with its teeth. Sadly, no one knows how many are left in the wild because you don’t see them around much anymore.

Additional reporting by Olivia Lee

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Super typhoon victims flee again as rains flood southern Philippines

Erik de Castro PlaneArk 22 Jan 14;

Emergency workers evacuated thousands of people across the southern Philippines on Tuesday, including many already made homeless by a typhoon in November, after three days of rain flooded towns and farmland.

Hundreds of survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, were forced to flee by tropical depression "Agaton" after emergency shelters were damaged or destroyed on the eastern central island of Samar.

Tents collapsed under the weight of the rain and emergency plastic sheets have been torn away, humanitarian agency Oxfam said.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year with Haiyan slamming into central islands on November 8, killing more than 6,100 and wiping out entire coastal communities in Leyte and Samar.

More than 200,000 people have been taken to shelters over the last three days as flood waters rose, but hundreds were still marooned on the roofs of their houses on Tuesday, said Eduardo del Rosario, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Del Rosario said 42 people had been killed, 65 had been injured and damage to property and farms had reached 367 million pesos ($8.13 million).

"Our troops are trying to reach them and bring them to safer ground," del Rosario said.

Nenita Matuda, 45, and her children perched on their neighbors' roof as she watched the rampaging waters outside Butuan City in the north of Mindanao island.

"Thank God we are safe but we just lost our house," she told Reuters as she wiped tears from her eyes.

A state of calamity has been declared in Agusan del Norte and 15 other towns in the Davao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur areas of Mindanao even as weather bureau lifted alert levels as the storm weakened. ($1 = 45 pesos)

(Reporting By Manuel Mogato; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Best of our wild blogs: 22 Jan 14

Fang Blenny’s Glass House
from Pulau Hantu

Sat 25 Jan & Sun 26 Jan Morning Walks
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.

Brown-throated Sunbird and Costus spicatus flowers
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Butterflies Galore! : Striped Blue Crow
from Butterflies of Singapore

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Malaysia: 'Tourism revenue offsets timber losses'

Laili Ismil New Straits Times 22 Jan 14;

BOLD MOVE: CM made the right decision in cancelling logging licences, says Masidi

KOTA KINABALU: REVENUE from the tourism industry had made up for losses in timber earnings since the state government began reducing its stake in logging.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the state was once heavily dependent on logging and there was a time when Sabah could earn up to RM2 billion from the industry.

He said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman took a bold step 12 years ago in cancelling logging licences, concessions, while stepping up tourism promotions.

Masidi said last year, revenue from logging stood at about RM100 million.

"The state government knew that the resources were not going to last forever, so, we had to make the right decision even if it was an unpopular one," he said during the launch of a book, titled Sensational Seas of Sabah, published by Scubazoo here on Monday.

Masidi said the spike in the number of tourist arrivals had compensated the loss of logging revenue, and this year the state was expected to rake in RM5.7 billion in earnings. He added that despite all the potential, the government would continue to protect the environment.

He said limiting visitors to certain nature attractions was important for sustainability, citing the 120 divers a day limit on Sipadan Island and 192 summit climbers a day on Gunung Kinabalu as examples.

Masidi also said Sabah was lucky to have those who are passionate about conserving the state's natural heritage and educating the public on the importance of looking after the environment.
Present were Sabah Tourism Board Chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai and Shangri-la's Tanjung Aru Resort General manager Craig Powell.

Scubazoo managing director Jason Isley said the book was to promote the lesser visited islands in the state to take the pressure off Sipadan Island.

"It also helps illustrate the beauty under Sabah's waters and its bio-diversity captured in 300 fascinating images," he said, adding that they hoped the books would woo tourists.

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A quarter of sharks and rays threatened with extinction

IUCN 21 Jan 14

A quarter of the world’s sharks and rays are threatened with extinction according to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, with ray species found to be at a higher risk than sharks. The findings are part of the first ever global analysis of these species carried out by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG).

The study, which comes at the start of the year marking the 50th anniversary of The IUCN Red List, was published today in the journal eLIFE. It includes the analysis of the conservation status of 1,041 shark, ray and closely related chimaera species.

According to the findings, 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% categorized as Least Concern.

“Our analysis shows that sharks and their relatives are facing an alarmingly elevated risk of extinction,” says Dr Nick Dulvy, IUCN SSG Co-Chair and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “In greatest peril are the largest species of rays and sharks, especially those living in shallow water that is accessible to fisheries.”

Overfishing is the main threat to the species, according to the paper. Reported catches of sharks, rays and chimaeras peaked in 2003 and have been dominated by rays for the last 40 years. Actual catches are likely to be grossly under-reported.

Unintentionally caught sharks and rays account for much of the catch, yet developing markets and depleting fishery targets have made this “bycatch” increasingly welcome. Intentional killing of sharks and rays due to the perceived risk that they pose to people, fishing gear or target species is contributing to the threatened status of at least 12 species.

“Surprisingly, we have found that the rays, including sawfish, guitarfish, stingrays, and wedgefish, are generally worse off than the sharks, with five out of the seven most threatened families made up of rays,” says Dr Colin Simpfendorfer, IUCN SSG Co-Chair and Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. “While public, media and government attention to the plight of sharks is growing, the widespread depletion of rays is largely unnoticed. Conservation action for rays is lagging far behind, which only heightens our concern for this species group.”

The global market for shark fins used in shark fin soup is a major factor in the depletion of not only sharks but also some rays with valuable fins, such as guitarfish. Sharks, rays and chimaeras are also sought for their meat. Other products from these species include a Chinese tonic made from manta and devil ray gills and pharmaceuticals made from deep sea shark livers.

The Indo-Pacific, particularly the Gulf of Thailand and the Mediterranean Sea are the two ‘hotspots’ where the depletion of sharks and rays is most dramatic. The Red Sea is also home to a relatively high number of threatened sharks and rays, according to the experts.

“Sharks, rays and chimaeras tend to grow slowly and produce few young, which leaves them particularly vulnerable to overfishing,” says Sonja Fordham, IUCN SSG Deputy Chair and president of the Washington, DC-based Shark Advocates International, a project of The Ocean Foundation.

“Significant policy strides have been made over the last two decades but effective conservation requires a dramatic acceleration in pace as well as an expansion of scope to include all shapes and sizes of these exceptional species. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that the need for such action is urgent.”

Sharks, rays and chimaeras are known as ‘cartilaginous fish’ due to the fact that their skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone. They are one of the world’s oldest and most ecologically-diverse groups of animals.

The study is the result of a collaboration of 302 experts from 64 countries.

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