Scientists have completed the first complete assessment of extinction risk for all Australian sharks, rays and ghost sharks. They found that Australia is home to more than a quarter of Earth’s known species – but 12% are at high risk or even critically endangered.
A resulting Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 was published by the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub to address these issues. The author, Charles Darwin University senior research fellow Dr. Peter Kyne says that severe population declines are driving some species toward extinction and urgent action needs to be taken now or else they might disappear forever.
“While Australia’s risk is considerably lower than the global level of 37 percent, it does raise concern for the 39 Australian species assessed as having an elevated risk of extinction,” Dr. Kyne said. “Around Australia, many of our threatened sharks and rays are not commercially important so these are largely ‘out of sight, out of mind, but they require protection at national, state and territory levels.
“There are positive signs that protection and management is working for some iconic species such as the White Shark and Gray Nurse Shark, although our assessment shows that these species remain threatened.”
The Marine Biodiversity Hub Director Dr. Alan Jordan says that the Action Plan is not only an overview for managers of all sharks and their habitats, but also a first attempt at creating such comprehensive national regulations to protect these animals from endangerment or extinction in our oceans today.
“It identifies priority at-risk species, those that need further protection and species of no immediate concern,” Dr. Jordan said.
Australia has been able to sustain strong focus on sustainable fisheries. This is demonstrated by the fact that 80% of Australia’s 328 shark species are not threatened, leading them as being one example for other countries who have wanted or needed improvement but haven’t had enough time before becoming overfished again, according to co-author Dr. Michelle Heupel from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
“In Australia, comprehensive fisheries management along with vast areas that are unfished or lightly fished and the marine protected area network have helped secure the status of many species,” Dr. Heupel said.
Australian waters also serve as a refuge or “lifeboat” for 45 species that are threatened in other parts of the world such as the Giant Guitarfish and the Spotted Eagle Ray.
“These species remain secure in Australian waters,” Dr. Kyne said. “But while we should celebrate the secure status of many species, we urgently need to increase our research and management efforts for Australia’s threatened sharks and rays.”