Listen to the Statistics on North American Sharks
The International Union for Conservation of Nature said on Monday that 26% of all rays and sharks are threatened with extinction in the Northeast Atlantic.
“Most sharks and rays are exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing because of their tendency to grow slowly, mature late, and produce few young. Those at greatest risk of extinction in the northeast Atlantic include heavily fished, large sharks and rays, like porbeagle and common skate, as well as commercially valuable deepwater sharks and spiny dogfish,” said Claudine Gibson, former Program Officer for the IUCN SSG and lead author of the Report.
Currently, the European Union has provides species-specific fishing limits for only 4 of the regions 116 sharks. Hopefully, this report will be a central part of the conversations for setting European quotas over the next few weeks.
