Geneva - Sharks and rays lack adequate protection, particularly on the high seas, and 32 per cent of open ocean species are threatened with extinction, a new study released Thursday has found.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature studied the status of 64 species of open ocean, or pelagic, sharks and rays. The new study was said to be the largest of its kind carried out to date.
Of the species examined, an additional 24 per cent are categorized by the group as 'near threatened.' The study did not have enough information to assess another 25 per cent.
'Overfishing is the biggest threat to all sharks,' Sonja Fordham, Deputy Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group said by telephone from Belgium.
The species on the high seas were more threatened, Fordham added, 'mostly because there are no international fishing limits' in those areas.
'Once considered only incidental 'by-catch'' of high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries 'these species are increasingly targeted due to new markets for shark meat and high demand for their valuable fins,' the Gland, Switzerland-based advocacy group, said.
After taking the fin, the body is then generally thrown back into the ocean, IUCN alleged. It noted that 'sharks are particularly sensitive to overfishing due to their tendency to take many years to mature and have relatively few young.'
Fordham said that the United States and New Zealand were the only countries to have taken measures to protect particularly meaty species of shark.
The study was released ahead of an international summit of fishery managers responsible for high seas tuna fisheries set to take place in Spain.
The conservationist group wants governments to set catch limits for sharks and rays and protect the species threatened with extinction.
Last year, a more narrowly-focused IUCN study found that at least 26 per cent, or 30 species, of north-east Atlantic Ocean sharks, rays and chimaeras were threatened with extinction. An additional 20 per cent of species surveyed in that area are in the 'near threatened' category.
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