SHARK AND RAY CRISIS:
1 IN 3 SPECIES FACE EXTINCTION.
You can help them survive.
© naturepl.com / Nuno Sa / WWF
Sharks and rays – mythologized, feared, revered, and misunderstood. These amazing creatures capture our imaginations. Yet tragically, they are being killed faster than they can reproduce.
The main threat? Overfishing. Up to 100 million are killed for meat and fins each year. This means hundreds of species are now on the brink of extinction, including the iconic hammerheads. We need to act fast, or else we will lose them entirely.
Did you know sharks and rays are crucial for us and our planet?
That’s right! Sharks and rays keep the oceans healthy. They balance the marine ecosystems, supporting other species, people, and our blue planet. They even help us breathe! Sharks and rays bring food to phytoplankton – tiny ocean plants that produce half of the Earth’s oxygen.
What can we do?
Sadly, even though sharks and rays are so important for nature and people, they are pushed ever closer toward extinction. But it does not have to be this way. We have the solutions to save them – and you can help!
Thanks to the kind support of people like you, we have been able to:
- tag endangered thresher sharks in Indonesia to make marine protected areas there work better for the sharks;
- train fishers in Pakistan to safely release whale sharks, which got accidentally entangled in their fishing nets – over 110 sharks already got released thanks to the training we provided;
- protect threatened baby sharks and rays in Fiji by studying their nursery grounds in the country’s deepest river; and
- help ten different countries produce and update their national conservation plans for sharks and rays.
And this is just a snapshot of our work! With over a decade of shark and ray conservation experience, we now work in over 25 countries and territories to protect these amazing creatures.