14 DAY TRIAL // A third of the sharks, rays and skates on our planet are threatened with extinction, and mankind has something to do with it, as always, concluded a new study carried out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The IUCN's Red List which gives the worldwide standard for assessing the conservation status of species is being re-evaluated, and these new reports are based on its categories: 'least concern', 'near threatened', 'vulnerable', 'endangered', 'critically endangered', 'extinct in the wild' and 'extinct'.
The animals are part of a certain category depending on the abundance of the species, the geographic range, the reproductive rate and other factors.
The Red List assessment of sharks, skates, and rays by an international team of more than 100 experts, was being supervised by Jack Musick, emeritus professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
At the end of the classification, 345 species of the total 1,044 species of cartilaginous fish studied, which means 33% of them, were considered 'threatened'.
In the 'threatened' category enter the species that are 'vulnerable', 'endangered' and 'critically endangered'.
Musick insisted that the exact threat level for these species cannot be known for sure, because there is not enough data on them, for several reasons.
This study is part of a larger evaluation of the state of the planet's vertebrate populations, which actually found that one fifth of them are threatened, and cartilaginous fish like sharks, rays and skates are part of this percentage.
Previous shark studies, localized along the US eastern seaboard found that the numbers of some species of shark have been cut in half, and some have even fallen by 90%.
The study showed that most threats to cartilaginous fish occur in the tropics, where the confined distributions are linked to intensive fishing, OurAmazingPlanet reports.
So a few actions are necessary, according to Musick and his team, and this includes habitat protection, adoption of new laws and policy measures, management of harvest and trade, and also an enhancement of public awareness through educational campaigns.