The global status of sharks, rays, and chimaeras

In the 20 years since the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Shark Specialist Group’s (SSG) first status report (Sharks, Rays and Chimaeras: The Status of the Chondrichthyan Fishes), much has changed for sharks, rays and chimaeras. This report updates our understanding, and the scope of information in its 2,000-odd pages reflects the scale of these two decades of change. The breadth of research topics has expanded, mirroring the inclusion of a greater diversity of species, and attention is being trained on the emerging threats and the accelerating global changes to aquatic ecosystems. The diversity of researchers who contribute to science and conservation within the SSG network and beyond, and of the regions they investigate and endeavour to conserve, has grown exponentially: 353 contributors have compiled information for 10 (arbitrary) geopolitical regions, delving into information from 158 countries or jurisdictions with a coastline. The 2005 report heralded a sea change for sharks, rays and chimaeras, whose historical obscurity in policy, conservation and fisheries management was a serious concern as the pace of their declines threatened to outstrip our information for and attention to them. In this report, the increased focus that was called for is now apparent in the scale of work happening across the planet.