Many shark species migrate out of national jurisdictions into the high seas, making international cooperation essential to effective shark conservation.  International fisheries management is the responsibility of a network of Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) with varying degrees of legal competence for setting limits on fishing for sharks (including rays). 

To date, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) have been relative leaders in international shark management.  Shark fisheries data are sorely lacking worldwide; ICCAT, NAFO and the International Scientific Committee (ISC) in the North Pacific are the only RFMOs to produce any shark stock assessments.  ICCAT scientists have and produced heavily caveated assessments of the Atlantic populations of blue (Prionace glauca), shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), and porbeagle (Lamna nasus) sharks while NAFO scientists have assessed Northwest Atlantic thorny skates (Amblyraja radiata) and ISC has assessed blue shark.  In addition, ICCAT and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) have conducted ecological risk assessments for shark and ray species taken in their fisheries.

In 2004, after several actions aimed at improving shark fisheries data, Parties to ICCAT agreed to a binding recommendation that amounted to the world’s first international ban on shark finning. The Recommendation states that all ICCAT Contracting and Cooperating Parties or Fishing Entities shall require full utilization of sharks and limit shark fins onboard to 5% of the weight of sharks onboard. Countries are to also report shark catch data annually, encourage the release of live, unwanted, incidentally caught sharks and, where possible, facilitate research to identify shark nursery areas and ways to make fishing gears more selective. Within a few years, NAFO, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), the WCPFC, the Southeast Atlantic Fisheries Organization (SEAFO), and the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) took similar action (see Table 5.7 in The Conservation Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays). It is important to note however, that a great number of countries party to these RFMOs have yet to ban shark finning in their national waters, and implementation of the RFMO bans varies among countries, limiting their effectiveness.

NAFO adopted an international catch limit on thorny skates in 2004, based on a proposal from the United States (US). This limit is still the world’s only international elasmobranch quota and yet currently stands at twice the level advised by NAFO scientists. 

In 2006, based on a proposal from France, the Commission for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) agreed to a prohibition on directed shark fishing, but without any concrete limits on shark bycatch.  Similarly, NEAFC in 2008 adopted a ban on targeted fishing for spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) without addressing incidental catch of the species.

The world’s tuna RFMOs have adopted few binding measures for sharks beyond finning bans. In 2005, ICCAT Parties committed to reducing fishing mortality on North Atlantic shortfin makos; in 2007, the Parties reiterated this commitment, applying it also to porbeagle sharks. There are, however, no ICCAT measures in place to ensure such mortality reductions.  In 2009, proposals to do so from the US and the European Union (EU) failed. That year, Brazil and the EU were successful in their second attempt to get ICCAT Parties (except for Mexico) to agree to a prohibition on retention of bigeye thresher sharks (Alopias superciliosis), in accordance with scientific advice, while a rather complicated proposal for ICCAT porbeagle limits was defeated. In 2010, IOTC Parties adopted a ban on retention for all three species of thresher sharks, based on a proposal from the EU. 

Detailed information on shark measures adopted by RFMOs is included in the report from the IUCN SSG Pelagic Shark Red List Workshop, The Conservation Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays.