Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs)

Chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimaeras – hereafter referred to as ‘sharks’) are facing a global extinction crisis. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, it is now estimated that over one-third of sharks are threatened with extinction. Over the last century, fisheries have had a massive cumulative impact on sharks and this threat has beencompounded by habitat loss and climate change. Considering that many shark species are long-lived, often with naturally low abundances, and particularly susceptible to fishing pressure, species are increasingly being affected. Fisheries and trade management measures alone are not enough to reverse population declines. However, a place-based conservation approach can play a critical role in halting these declines by sheltering populations from fishing pressure as well as habitat changes. The IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group, with support from the IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme and the IUCN Task Force on Marine Mammal Protected Areas, aims to develop an expert-driven innovative approach to ensure that discrete portions of habitats, critical to shark species – Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) – are delineated and used in various place-based conservation and management initiatives across the world’s ocean. The same approach can now be applied to shark conservation. In addition to pointing to locations where Marine Protected Areas (MPA) or MPA networks can be envisaged to specifically protect shark species, ISRA can support environmental impact assessments of activities specifically affecting shark conservation, marine spatial planning exercises, and in international, regional, national and local conservation contexts. Given the rapid degradation of the conservation status of a very high proportion of shark species, along with the limited place-based protection these species have been benefiting from until now, implementing an ISRA approach at the global level is considered a matter of urgency.