IUCN: 37% of sharks and rays threatened with extinction

WHY IN THE NEWS?

According to a new red list by IUCN, world’s sharks and rays have been witnessing declines in their populations since 2014 and are now threatened with extinction.

About:

• New red list was released by IUCN at global conference with the aim of protecting dwindling species.
• It notes that, there are signs of hope as fishing quotas have allowed several tuna species to be put on their path to recovery.
• About 37% of sharks and rays across the world are considered endangered as of 2021. In 2014, this amounted to 33%.
• This upward trend was the result of overfishing, loss of habitat and climate change,
• Oceanic shark populations have also decreased by 71% since 1970.

Can we recover their population?

IUCN highlighted that, progress can be made towards reviving tuna populations and other species, if states and other actors take right actions.

IUCN Red List Unit

The red list by IUCN reassesses hundreds of species each year. Out of 138,000 species that were tracked, more than 38,000 are threatened with extinction. Many of the planet’s ecosystems are mainly strained by global warming, deforestation, pollution, habitat degradation and other threats.

Declining bird population

More than half of the bird of prey species are reducing in population worldwide.  18 species are critically endangered. Warming temperatures and melting ice will reduce the emperor penguin colonies by 70 % by 2050 and 98% by 2100.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

IUCN is an international organization that works in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, field projects research, advocacy, field projects, and education. It was established in 1948.