​The eighth region targeted by the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project covered the South American Atlantic (Region 5). Stemming from the joint regional workshop for the South American Atlantic and Inland Waters (Regions 5 and 13) in Montevideo, Uruguay from 13-17 January, 2025, this resulted in the delineation of 81 ISRAs, 2 candidate ISRAs, and 25 Areas of Interest for this region.

​The seventh region targeted by the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project covered the South American Inland Waters (Region 13). Stemming from the joint regional workshop for the South American Atlantic and Inland Waters in Montevideo, Uruguay from 13-17 January, 2025, this resulted in the delineation of 21 ISRAs and 14 Areas of Interest.

See here for the latest update about the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project in this First View publication in Oryx. This publication summarizes the progress of the ISRA project since launching and covers the goals until 2027.

A technical brief on important marine areas has just been released at the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (CoP 16) of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia. ​

New update on the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project published in the journal, Marine Policy.

Mouton, T. L., Gonzalez-Pestana, A., Rohner, C. A., Charles, R., García-Rodríguez, E., Kyne, P. M., ... & Jabado, R. W. (2025). Shortfalls in the protection of ISRAs undermine shark conservation efforts in the Central and South American Pacific. Marine Policy, 171, 106448.

The fifth region targeted by the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project covered the Polar Waters (Region 1). Stemming from the workshop in Tirana, Albania from 27-29 May, 2024, this resulted in the delineation of 34 ISRAs, four candidate ISRAs, and 11 Areas of Interest.

The fourth region region targeted by the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA)  project covered the Asian region. This regional expert workshop was held in Bali, Indoneisa from 22–26 January 2024. This compendium provides an overview of all areas delineated.

New update on sawfish species published in the journal, Oryx.

In November 2021, the IUCN Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Group held a series of online workshops to reassess the Red List status of the five sawfish species (family Pristidae). This process concluded in December 2023 with the publication of the final assessment, for the Narrow Sawfish Anoxypristis cuspidata.

Source: Harry A.V., Carlson J.K., Espinoza M., Grant, M.I., Haque, A.B., Jabado, R.W. and Rigby, C.L. All sawfish now Critically Endangered but sustained conservation efforts can lead to recovery. Oryx. 2024;58(2):146-146. doi:10.1017/S0030605323001692

The third region region targeted by the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA)  project covered the Western Indian Ocean. This regional expert workshop was held in in Durban, South Africa from 11–15 September 2023. This compendium provides an overview of all areas delineated.

Continuing the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA)  project, the second regional expert workshop was held in Thessaloniki, Greece from 8–12 May, 2023. The region covered included the Mediterranean and Black Seas. This compendium provides an overview of all areas delineated.

The first ever region region targeted by the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project covered the Central and South American Pacific (Region 12). This regional expert workshop was held in in Bogota, Colombia from 3-7 October 2022. This compendium provides an overview of all areas delineated.

​The paper, “Putting sharks on the map: a global standard for improving shark area-based conservation,” outlines a set of standardized criteria for Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) that can support management considerations to reverse the loss of sharks globally and integrate these into area-based planning.

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.

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. ​

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.