UPDATE: Good News!! All recommendations were adopted by CITES!! Silkies, threshers and devil rays are now listed on Appendix II !
At the moment representatives of 183 member parties are gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa, to attend to the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) from 4 September – 5 October 2016. It is their 17th meeting of such kind (17th Conference of Parties = CoP17). The Convention was drafted more than 50 years ago in 1963 at a meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and finally entered into force in 1975. Nowadays, CITES has 183 member states and protects more than 35.000 species (~ 5000 animals & ~ 29.000 plants) by varying degrees.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW
CITES is an international agreement to which States adhere voluntariliy. CITES is then legally binding to its parties (= states) but does not represent national laws. The agreement thus provides an international framework that should be respected by each party and member states should then adopt own national legislations which incorporate CITES decisions. This also means, that there are no international legal consequences for not obeying CITES agreements!
How does CITES work?
CITES has adopted 3 Appendices with varying degrees of protection –
Appendix I: All species listed on this appendix I “are threatened with extinction and are or may be affected by trade”. The trade of wild-caught specismen is illegal. If products of animals are to be exported, special im- and export permits are needed and the exporting country needs to assure the export does not affect wild populations. Examples are:
Sawfishes (Pristidae spp, 7 species)
Red panda (Ailurus fulgens)
Dugong and manatees (Sirenia)
Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
Appendix II: The second Appendix lists all species that are not necessariliy threatend with extinction yet but if no action is taken may become so. It also includes species that are very similar to species already listed in the Appendices I & II. Similar to Appendix I, im- and export permits are required for the international trade. Interestingly, species listed on Appendix I but bred in captivity for commercial purposes are treated as Appendix II listings (Article VII). Currently all sharks and rays (besides the seven species of sawfishes) are listed on CITES Appendices are listed on Appendix II:
Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
Scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphynra lewini)
Great hammerhead shark (Sphynra mokarran)
Smoot hammerhead shark (Spyhrna zygaena)
Oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus)
Porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus)
Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus)
Manta rays (Manta spp, 2 species)
Appendix III: If indiviual member countries ask other CITES members for assisstance in controlling the trade of a certain species, but these species are not necessarily threatened with extinction in other parts of the world, these speices are listed on Appendix III. Examples are:
African civet (Civettictis civetta) by Botswana
Alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) by the USA
Will we be able to protect threatened shark and ray species for future generations?
How do the member countries vote?
New Amendments must be approved by a two-thirds majority who are “present and voting” at each Conference of the Parties (=CoP). CITES conferences are usually held in a three year cycle.
CITES – sharks & rays
As of today, 18 shark and ray species are listed on Appendix I & II. In 1994, sharks were first mentioned on CITES’ agenda but it took until 2003 to protect the first two shark species: whale sharks and basking sharks (Appendix II). The Great white shark followed in 2005 (Appendix II) and again two years later 6 out of 7 sawfishes were listed on Appendix I.
Although proposals for the protection of several other shark species were repeatedly discussed (hammerhead sharks, sandbar shark, dusky shark, porbeagle shark, spiny dogfish, oceanic whitetip shark) it wasn’t until 2013 when three species of hammerhead sharks (scalloped, great and smooth hammerheads), the oceanic whitetip, the porbeagle shark as well as both manta ray species were finally added to Appendix II.
This year, at the 17th Conference of the Parties in Johannesburg, again proposal for the listing of sharks and rays were submitted. All thresher sharks, silky sharks as well as devil rays are about to be discussed – will they be listed on CITES Appendices? Fingers crossed!
Proposals at the CoP17 in Johannesburg from September – 5 October 2016
Silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis)
The proposal of the listing of the silky shark under Appendix II was handed in by the Maldives and is supported by 21 other member countries. Silkies are commercially exploited and declines of between 70 % up to 90 % are reported in all regions. Thir assessment as “Vulnerable” by the IUCN is from 2007 and out of date. The biology of silkies makes them one of the most vulnerable open ocean shark species to overexploitation.
A silky shark off Cuba. Image by Alex Chernikh – CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2138939
Bigeye thresher shark (Alopias superciliosus)
Bigeye thresher sharks are estimated to have declined to less than 30 % of published baseline data, mainly due to the fintrade where this shark’s fins are highly valued. Similar to many other shark species, thresher sharks generally mature late (females between 12 and 14 years) and only give birth to about two pups (Compagno 2001). Due to the lifespan of about 20 yeras and a 12 month gestation period (Compagno 2001), bigeye thresher sharks will only produce about less than twenty pups during their life cycle (Amorim et al. 2009). Alongside the two other thresher shark species (Common thresher Alopias vulpinus and pelagic thresher Alopias pelagicus ) 24 states proposed the listing of the bigeye thresher shark on Appendix II.
A bigeye tresher shark caught during Iongline operations. Image by the NOAA Observer Program
Devil rays (Mobula spp.)
A joint proposal of 23 member states was handed in to add all 9 devil ray species on Appendix II. Dried gill plates (which they are mainly exploited for) are very similar among the species and very hard to distinguish among eachother as well as from the already protected manta rays and thus all 9 species should be included into the listing.
Similar to their already protected relatives – the Manta rays – the commercially most important devil ray species Mobula japanica and Mobula tarapacana are large-bodied and slow-growing animals that are especially targeted for their gill plates, which are believed to possess special healing capabilities in the traditional asian medicine. One adult individuals can yield up to 3,5 kg of dried fin plates which sell up to 557 USD retail price in China (CITES proposal).
A mobula ray breaching. Image by Nick Bonzey from Corvallis, OR (Bat Rays catching some air) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Now it is on the delegates to decide! Let us keep our fingers crossed!
Amorim, A., Baum, J., Cailliet, G.M., Clò, S., Clarke, S.C., Fergusson, I., Gonzalez, M., Macias, D., Mancini, P., Mancusi, C., Myers, R., Reardon, M., Trejo, T., Vacchi, M. & Valenti, S.V. 2009. Alopias superciliosus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009: e.T161696A5482468.
Compagno, L.J.V. 2001. Sharks of the World: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Shark Species Known to Date, vol. 2. Bullhead, mackerel, and carpet sharks (heterodontiformes, lamniformes and orectolobiformes) FAO species catalogue for fishery purposes, no. 1. FAO, Rome.
![A mobula ray breaching. Image by Nick Bonzey from Corvallis, OR (Bat Rays catching some air) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Mobula_breaching.jpg)
Share On