Blog Archives

Assessing Extinction Risk for Global Shark Trends

20/12/2020

Peter M. Kyne | SSG Red List Authority Coordinator

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is recognized as the most comprehensive, objective, global approach for evaluating the conservation status of species. Individual species as assessed against the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to determine their relative risk of extinction (see Categories overview below), with the aim of highlighting those species which are facing an elevated risk of global extinction (those assessed in the threatened categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable). There are currently 1,091 published chondrichthyan assessments on the IUCN Red List, largely the result of nearly 20 years of Red Listing effort by the SSG.

It's all in the Name: Shark Systematics and the IUCN Red List

10/12/2020

Peter M. Kyne | SSG Red List Authority Coordinator

The Ever-changing Nature of Chondrichthyan Systematic

The Reef Manta Ray, formerly known as Manta alfredi, is now known as Mobula alfredi (Hanifaru Bay, Baa Atoll, Maldives © Guy Stevens, Manta Trust 2017)

Chondrichthyan systematics is an ever-changing and ever-advancing field. Names change, new species are described, species are “sunk” - sometimes the result of a “lump” (two or more previously recognised species are shown to in fact be the same species) - and old names are resurrected. Keeping up with these changes can be daunting for the non-taxonomist, but is essential in everything we do as SSG members. Indeed, taxonomy is a foundation of the life sciences. This field classifies and arranges the taxa we work on, from the higher level, to the species level. Knowing which species we are studying, managing, or conserving is the very foundation of the SSG’s mission.

Nearly one-third of sharks and rays are updated on IUCN Red List

10/12/2020

IUCN Shark Specialist Group nears the end of Global Shark Trends project..

Lost Shark Carcharhinus obseletus | © Lindsay Marshall (stickfigurefish.com.au)

A list of 422 shark, ray, and skate assessments that were published as part of the 2020-03 update is provided here: Excel | PDF. This includes many species from deep-sea, the Falklands, the Northeast Atlantic, the Southwest Atlantic, the North Pacific, the Southeast Pacific, and Southeast Asia. These assessments are an output of the SSG’s Global Shark Trends Project.

A New Era for the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group

5/12/2020

Nicholas K. Dulvy | SSG Co-Chair

After nearly two decades of piecing together the global Red List assessments for all chondrichthyans, we are now in a position to take a much more strategic approach to complete the first full reassessment by 2020. In recent years, we have managed to keep Red List Assessments ticking along on a shoestring budget to undertake this vital task, with considerable efforts of volunteer members and staff. Part of the challenge has been the increasing scale of the backroom work required to review assessments and prepare them to the consistency standards of the IUCN Red List.

Introduction to the Global Shark Trends Project 2018-2020

1/12/2020

Assessing and reassessing the extinction risk of chondrichthyan species for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is one of the core activities of the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group (SSG). To undertake this activity, the SSG has commenced the Global Shark Trends Project (GSTP), a collaboration between Simon Fraser University, Charles Darwin University, James Cook University, and the Georgia Aquarium, funded through the Shark Conservation Fund.

News

Assessing Extinction Risk for Global Shark Trends

It's all in the Name:​ Shark Systematics and the IUCN Red List

Nearly one-third of sharks and rays are updated on IUCN Red List

A New Era for the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group

Introduction to the Global Shark Trends Project 2018-2020

Archives

It's all in the Name: Shark Systematics and the IUCN Red List