This week the Government of Bangladesh took a major step to improve the protection of threatened sharks and rays by updating the list of species and species groups under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012. The updated list empowers the strict protection of eight genera and 23 shark and ray species, while allowing the sustainable exploitation, consumption, and trade of one genus and 29 species if their catch is found to be non-detrimental to wild populations.

​Bangladesh is a global hotspot for sharks and rays. Many species are threatened with extinction without urgent action taken to protect them. Sharks and rays are highly valued for their fins, gill plates and skins exported to international markets, especially China.

A new analysis published today in the journal Current Biology finds that one-third of the world’s chondrichthyan fishes – sharks, rays, and chimaeras – are now threatened with extinction according to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria.

The CITES Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) have jointly published two guides to facilitate the identification of shark and ray species common in the Southeast Asian region.
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The purpose of the guides is to provide an accessible tool to help fisheries officers, fisheries researchers, CITES authorities and other relevant stakeholders in identifying sharks and rays commonly found in the Southeast Asian region.

Shark News was the official SSG newsletter from June 1994 to October 2004. We have now revived this magazine to provide a forum for exchanging information on all aspects of shark, ray, and chimaera conservation matters for SSG members and the general interested audience. Shark News has been reshaped into a modern quarterly magazine also to be used as an outreach and educational tool.

Written by Daniel Fernando

• Blue Resources Trust | Co-Founder and Director
• IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group (SSG) | Regional Vice-Chair | Indian Ocean

Despite being an island nation, Sri Lanka often lacks the scientific data and tools necessary to monitor the marine environment and effectively conserve and manage its ocean resources. And it was a combination of this need for data, along with the challenges encountered when attempting research as an independent marine biologist, that led to the establishment of Blue Resources Trust (BRT).

Written by Simon Weigmann

• Chair | Integrative Taxonomy Working Group | IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group (SSG)
• Associate Scientist | Center of Natural History | University of Hamburg
• Chair | German Elasmobranch Society (D.E.G.)

Written by Muhammad Moazzam Khan

• WWF-Pakistan | Technical Advisor
• Member of the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group (SSG)

By Kennedy Osuka | CORDIO East Africa

Written by ​David Ebert and Marc Dando

The waters of the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea are home to an amazing variety of sharks, rays, and chimaeras. The newly published Field Guide to Sharks, Rays, & Chimaeras of Europe and the Mediterranean covers all 146 species found in the Mediterranean, the waters of the European Atlantic and Iceland, along all the Scandinavian coasts, in the Black Sea and as far south as the Canary Islands. ​

by Alexei M. Orlov | Former Regional Vice-Chair | Northwestern Pacific

A first ever dedicated checklist of South Africa’s chondrichthyan fauna provides a current list of all sharks, rays, skates and ghost sharks that occur in South African waters, their distribution and current IUCN Red List status.

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.​

​Tonight at the Sharks International conference, the Shark Specialist Group (SSG) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports on progress and new priorities associated with their Global Strategy to save the sawfishes, the world’s largest and most threatened rays. The expert update highlights the plight of Brazil’s Critically Endangered Largetooth Sawfish, and lays out clear steps for preventing extinction and restoring the population.