Global Shark Trends

Over the next three years the IUCN Shark Specialist Group is developing dashboard of global shark and ray indicators to track conservation outcomes at national, regional, and global scales. Specifically, we will produce a... [ view full abstract ]

Over the next three years the IUCN Shark Specialist Group is developing dashboard of global shark and ray indicators to track conservation outcomes at national, regional, and global scales. Specifically, we will produce a Living Planet Index summarizing trends all available population trend data and a Red List Index tracking change in extinction risk status in 1980, 2005, and 2020. To develop the Red List index, we will complete comprehensive IUCN Red List reassessments (and retrospective assessments) of the extinction risk status of all 1,250 chondrichthyans through 10 expert review workshops by end of 2020. While working toward the Living Planet Index, we summarise trends of 163 populations of 83 species, spanning 8 orders. We will use this knowledge to make the case for shark and ray conservation to the public and provide salient information to decision-makers to enable them to make appropriate conservation decisions. The team will develop a conservation priority model to combine Living Planet and Red List Indices with conservation likelihood indices and species distribution maps to identify those locations, and associated policy interventions, worthy of further conservation attention.