The agreement, the first of its kind to address the global conservation of sharks, was signed by Richard Benyon on behalf of the UK and a number of its Overseas Territories including the Falklands and South Georgia. Adopted under the Convention of Migratory Species it will help develop management measures to protect threatened species such as basking, longfin mako and whale sharks.
Many of these sharks are not only found in UK waters, but in the waters of British Overseas Territories making UK involvement crucial in ensuring these animals get the protection they need.

European politicians have agreed a commitment to ban the "discarding" of usable fish at sea, but were criticised for failing to take strong action to tackle overfishing.
Fisheries ministers meeting to discuss moves to reform the policy which governs all European fishing fleets have agreed there should be an end to discards but no firm date was set for bringing in the ban.
Provisional dates published by the EU council would see discards banned for Pelagic fisheries such as mackerel and herring by January 1 2014.
And a ban on discards in whitefish fisheries such as cod