A decision described as “historic”.

The conference on international trade in endangered species meeting in Panama pledged on Friday to protect some fifty species of sharks threatened by the flourishing traffic of their fins in Asia.

On the last day of this 19th Conference (COP19) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), delegates from 183 States and the European Union (EU) decided in plenary session to regulate the fishing of 54 species of requiem sharks (Carcharhinidae) and hammerhead sharks (Sphynidae).

These sharks have been listed in Appendix II of CITES strictly limiting the trade of certain species by consensus, despite the reservations expressed by Japan concerning the protection granted to the blue shark, considering that it is not a threatened species.

The Japanese delegate expressed his country's “serious concern” about the consequences of this decision, which is considered “prejudicial from a social and economic point of view” for the fishermen of his country.


The protection of these sharks, requested by the EU and fifteen countries, including Panama, was the most discussed decision of the summit which began on November 14.

Over the course of the debates, it became an emblematic measure of the conference and several delegations had put stuffed sharks on their desks.

Shirley Binder, the delegate from Panama, argued that the sharks that will now benefit from CITES protection represent “approximately 90% of the market” for shark fins.

This market, whose center is in Hong Kong, exceeds half a billion dollars per year (483 million euros).

The fins can be sold for 1,000 dollars per kilo in East Asia to make very famous soups of traditional Chinese gastronomy.

Conservation measures

"This will be remembered as the day we reversed the trend to prevent the extinction of the world's sharks and rays," said the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in a statement.

“This historic list of around 100 highly traded species will lead to the national level conservation measures that these species urgently need.

The crucial next step will be to implement these listings and ensure that they translate into stronger trade and fisheries management measures as soon as possible.

The only dissonant voice within organizations for the defense of the environment, the French NGO Fondation Brigitte Bardot denounced in a press release "a high mass (which) has once again demonstrated that CITES is not intended to protect wild animals but to orchestrate their international trade by trying to repair, with a few band-aids, the ecological disaster it is causing".

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  • Panama