Stronger shark conservation policies across China could – in effect – save the species from extinction, is the argument being levelled at the United States via a petition asking the US to better hold China accountable for failing to meet basic conservation standards.
New data, released by the Center for Biological Diversity, has revealed the scale of a crisis that has already eliminated more than two-thirds of the world’s oceanic sharks.
More than 80 million sharks are caught every year, driving a population decline by more than 70% since 1970. More than a third of all shark and ray species are now threatened with extinction. At the centre of that crisis sits the world’s largest high seas fishing fleet – operated by China, a nation that has yet to adopt shark conservation measures comparable to those required under United States law.
