Sharks protected as CITES CoP comes to a close

CoP 16 came to a close yesterday after a very exciting morning. Despite efforts by Japan, China, Grenada and others to reopen debates and revote on the shark proposals, voting was not even reopened as the Parties, including Republic of Congo, voted to keep regulations on the newly listed species of sharks that will be added to the CITES Appendices. 3 species of hammerheads, porbeagles and oceanic whitetip sharks were amongst the marine species which achieved listing under the Convention.

CITES has 177 signatories, with the Convention most recently coming into force for the Maldives during the CoP. The Maldives, like many other nations, has recently gazetted its first marine national park. As with terrestrial ecotourism, where tourists contribute to the local economy in order to have the experience of seeing an elephant or a gorilla, marine ecotourism is a vibrant industry in certain countries and contributes significantly to the economy. This argument was put forward during the debates on shark species at CITES as well as one of many arguments for why sharks and mantas needed more protection.