A bid to protect shark species at risk from overfishing has won the backing of a majority of countries at a meeting on the global wildlife trade.
Governments have voted in favour of proposals to list five species – oceanic whitetip, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, smooth hammerhead and porbeagle sharks – under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
If the move is adopted by a final plenary session of the Cites meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, this week, it will mean that the sharks will be listed as “Appendix II” species, with strict measures to regulate the international trade in them to make sure it is sustainable.
Conservationists welcomed the vote in favour of protecting the sharks, which they say are particularly vulnerable to overfishing…
Irish Independent 11/03/2013. Read the article “Vote to protect threatened sharks”
