A Special Group of Rays Are Now World’s Most Threatened Marine Fish

IUCN Shark Specialist Group Flags Need to Protect Critically Endangered “Rhino Rays”
 
PRESS RELEASE | London, 18 July, 2019

Whitespotted Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus djiddensis) © Matthew D. Potenski

Giant guitarfishes and wedgefishes, collectively called Rhino Rays, are now the world’s most threatened marine fish, based on new Red List assessments released today by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group (SSG). All but one of the 16 warm-water, shark-like ray species are assessed as Critically Endangered due primarily to overfishing for meat and fins.

“As wedgefishes and giant guitarfishes edge out sawfishes for the ‘most endangered’ title, we face the challenge of securing widespread protections for species that have gone largely unnoticed by governments and conservationists alike,” said Professor Nicholas Dulvy, SSG Co-chair based at Simon Fraser University. “Dubbing the two families collectively as Rhino Rays --after their distinctive, pointy snouts -- was step one in an effort to raise their profile and better broadcast their urgent plight.”
 
The fins of Rhino Rays are prized for shark fin soup. The meat is also valued and, in some cases, gelatinous filling in their snouts is considered a delicacy. As a result, Rhino Rays are fished in much of the world’s warm, coastal waters, particularly the Red Sea, the Indo-Malay Archipelago, along the Indian coast, and off most of Africa. Like many other rays and sharks, they have relatively low reproductive rates that leave them especially susceptible to overfishing.
 
“We’ve assessed almost all Rhino Rays as Critically Endangered based on declines of more than 80% over the past 30 to 45 years,” said Dr. Peter Kyne of Charles Darwin University, who serves as SSG Red List Authority Coordinator. “Two species with very restricted ranges – the Clown Wedgefish of the Indo-Malay Archipelago and False Shark Ray of Mauritania -- appear very close to extinction, while the Blackchin Guitarfish is now gone from much of the Mediterranean.”
 
The Mediterranean has the world’s only international Rhino Ray ban; it is not yet well implemented. Only eight of 88 range countries impose specific Rhino Ray conservation measures.
 
“Most of the fisheries that take Rhino Rays are poorly monitored, essentially unregulated, and increasingly intense,” says Sonja Fordham, SSG Deputy Chair and president of Shark Advocates International, a project of The Ocean Foundation. “Developing the catch and trade controls needed to reverse Rhino Ray declines will also benefit other marine species and associated ecosystems, as well as fishers, in the long run. To start, we need immediate, basic protections to save these remarkable rays from extinction. Time is running out.”
 
Rhino Rays are proposed for Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which would obligate Parties to regulate exports based on determinations that products were legally and sustainably sourced. Decisions on these proposals take place in August.

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Media contact:
Patricia Roy, [email protected], tel. +34 696 905 907.
 
Notes to Editors:
Made up of 174 experts from 55 countries, the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Shark Specialist Group (SSG) aims for the conservation, management and, where necessary, the recovery of the world's sharks, rays, and chimaeras by providing the technical and scientific expertise that enables action: www.iucnssg.org.
 
The new Red List Assessments for Rhino Rays, available at www.iucnredlist.org, are part of the SSG’s Global Shark Trends Project, which is assessing the extinction risk of all sharks, rays, and chimaeras by 2020: www.iucnssg.org/global-shark-trends-project.html The project is a partnership between Simon Fraser University, Charles Darwin University, James Cook University, and the Georgia Aquarium, with support from the Shark Conservation Fund.

​Link to RL table: 2019 IUCN Red List Update

Images for media use can be found here

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Fast Facts: Rhino Rays (Wedgefishes & Giant Guitarfishes)

• There are ten species of wedgefish (family Rhinidae) and six species of giant guitarfish (family Glaucostegidae) found in the world’s warm and tropical ocean waters (from inshore down to more than 100 meters); the term “Rhino Ray” is used to describe them collectively.
• The Indo-West Pacific is the centre of diversity for wedgefishes (eight species) and giant guitarfishes (five species); the other three occur in the Eastern Atlantic (including the Mediterranean’s Blackchin Guitarfish Glaucostegus cemiculus). There are no Rhino Rays in the Western Atlantic or the Eastern Pacific Oceans. 
• Some species, like the Bowmouth Guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma) and the Bottlenose Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae), are widely distributed. The False Shark Ray (Rhynchorhina mauritaniensis) occurs in only one place: Mauritania’s Banc d’Arguin National Park.
• The False Shark Ray as well as the Taiwanese Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus immaculatus) and the Clown Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus cooki), are known only from fish markets in Mauritania, Taiwan, Singapore and Jakarta, respectively; they have never been seen in the wild.
• Most Rhino Ray species can grow to more than 200 cm. The Whitespotted Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus djiddensis) and the Clubnose Guitarfish (Glaucostegus thouin) can reach over 300 cm. The Clown Wedgefish is relatively small, growing to about 80 cm.
• Rhino Rays give birth to litters that range in number from as few as two pups for the Bowmouth Guitarfish to as many as 24 for the Blackchin Guitarfish. Small litters contribute to their high susceptibility to overexploitation.
• Intense, largely unregulated fishing is taking place through most of range of Rhino Rays. They are targeted and caught incidentally in small and large-scale fisheries with a variety of gear.
• Rhino Ray meat is consumed locally and traded internationally. Large whole Wedgefish can sell for nearly US$700 each. In Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, the gelatinous filling found in the snouts of giant guitarfishes is considered a delicacy.
• Rhino Ray fins, particularly from large animals, are prized for shark fin soup and can fetch nearly US$1,000/kg.
• The high value of these products creates incentive to target Rhino Rays and to keep those caught incidentally.
• As a result of overfishing, all but one Rhino Ray species is assessed as Critically Endangered according to IUCN Red List criteria. As a group, Rhino Rays are now considered the most threatened marine fishes.
• The Eyebrow Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus palpebratus) is assessed as Near Threatened. This species occurs mainly in Australia where fishing pressure is generally low and managed. Australia represents a ‘lifeboat’ for three wedgefish and one giant guitarfish species, and the world’s only model for preventing Rhino Ray depletion.
• Of particular conservation concern are areas of high Rhino Ray diversity that are heavily fished by major shark fishing nations (including Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Iran), such as the Northern Indian Ocean (particularly the Arabian/Persian Gulf to India) and the Indo-Malay Archipelago.
• National and international Rhino Ray conservation measures are seriously lacking. Of 88 countries with one or more Rhino Ray species in their waters, only eight have species-specific conservation measures. There is only one international ban applicable to just one species of Rhino Ray (Blackchin Guitarfish in the Mediterranean).
• Urgent action is needed to prevent Rhino Ray extinctions and recover populations. The necessary suite of measures includes retention bans, bycatch mitigation, area closures, and international trade controls.