Whale sharks slide to extinction

From Vulnerable to Endangered – The Whale Shark by lamaveproject on Vimeo.

New assessments from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List reveal that growing human pressures on whale sharks are putting them at a growing risk of extinction. Whale sharks are now listed as critically endangered.

Number of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), the world’s largest living fish, has more than halved over the past 75 years as these slow-moving sharks continue to be caught and killed by ship propellers.

The largest confirmed whale shark had a length of 12.65 meters (41.5 feet) and a weight of approximately 21.5 tons (47,000 lbs). Whale sharks have a mouth that can be 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) wide, containing 300 to 350 rows of small teeth and 10 filter pads which it uses to filter feed.

Although conservation action in India, the Philippines and Taiwan has ended large-scale fishing for whale sharks in these countries, they continue to be caught in other locations, including southern China and Oman. Since whale sharks and tuna are often present together, they are often caught by fishermen who catch tuna.

“While the international trade in whale sharks is regulated through the Species List in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), more needs to be done domestically to protect whale sharks domestically,” says Simon Pierce, chief evaluator of the Red List, member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Shark Specialist Group and co-founder of the Marine Megafauna Foundation.

“It is alarming to see these iconic species slide towards extinction,” says Jane Smart, director of the IUCN Global Species Program. “These new IUCN Red List assessments underscore how urgent it is for the environmental community to take strategic action to protect the incredible diversity of life on our planet. The world’s oceans and forests will continue to provide us with food and other benefits only if we preserve their ability to do so. “

Unregulated fishing is also behind the rapidly falling number of the distinctive winghead shark (Eusphyra blochii), whose morphology makes it extremely vulnerable to entanglement in fishing nets. This hammerhead shark species went from Near Threatened to Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

While it’s hard to say how many individuals remain, recent surveys of fish markets in Indonesia have found only one winged shark among some 20,000 sharks of other species. A similar pattern is expected in all Asian countries where inshore fishing is intense and largely unregulated.

A full update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, including assessments of many other species, will be announced at the 2016 IUCN World Conservation Congress to be held in Hawaii from 1 to 10 September.

The IUCN Congress is expected to see key decisions on improving governance of the high seas under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.