A record 175 documents proposing new measures and policies on international trade in wild fauna and flora were submitted by the 27 April deadline for consideration at the World Wildlife Conference - the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP17). Among these documents, 60 are proposals to amend the lists of species subject to CITES trade controls were submitted by over 80 Parties from across the world.

Conservationists are applauding news that 50 countries have joined efforts to list devil rays, threshers, and silky sharks under Appendix II the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Cosponsors to the proposals – made originally by Fiji, Sri Lanka, and Maldives (respectively) – now include the European Union and its 28 Member States, Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and eight West African nations. Many other countries are co-sponsoring one or two of the proposals.

With an international net closing in on the trade in threatened species of aquatic life, countries in Asia and the Pacific are working to implement tools that will offer a balance of protection while ensuring trade in seafood is not adversely affected, an FAO convened meeting has concluded.

アースデーの4月22日、プロジェクト AWARE® は海洋ゴミに対する戦いをサポートする最新のイニシアティブを公表します: Adopt a Dive Site™です。スクーバダイビングコミュニティーが持つユニークな水中スキルを使って、Adopt a Dive Site では世界中のスクーバダイビングのリーダーたちに – ダイビングインストラクターやダイブセンター、ダイブリゾートも含めて – 私たちの遊び場を現地で守り・モニターする現在進行中の行動に参加するように強く求めています。

The European Commission today released a long-anticipated report on EU Member States’ 2014 implementation of the EU ban on shark finning (slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea) which finds few infringements and reaffirms the EU commitment to the most reliable means for finning ban enforcement: requiring that sharks be landed with fins still naturally attached. Such a rule greatly eases enforcement and facilitates collection of key species-specific catch data.

The world's largest shark fin industry lies in the heart of the Coral Triangle, a region of the Indian and Pacific Oceans home to the world's most diverse coral reefs and known as the Amazon of the seas. This idyllic-sounding environment sustains an industry responsible for the deaths of over 3 million sharks a year. With a reported annual catch of 100,000 tons, Indonesia's shark fishery contributes more to the international shark fin trade than any other nation.

Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science published new findings that suggest the expansion of protected areas into U.S. federal waters would safeguard 100 percent of core home range areas used by three species of sharks tracked in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.