The latest international research: nearly 2/3 of the world's coral reef sharks and rays may be endangered

　　China News Service, Beijing, January 18 (Reporter Sun Zifa) A new conservation paper published in the academic journal "Nature-Communication" under Springer Nature stated that researchers found that nearly two-thirds of the world's coral reef sharks and rays Species are on the verge of extinction.

　　The results of the study show that reef sharks and rays are at nearly twice the extinction risk of all 1,199 known shark and ray species in terms of their proportion of threatened species.

Therefore, there is a need for immediate conservation actions such as native conservation, fisheries management and enforcement, and the establishment of marine protected areas to protect these species.

　　According to the paper, coral reefs are among the ecosystems most affected by global climate change.

Sharks and rays are critical to the proper functioning of coral reef ecosystems, occupying a multitude of ecological niches - from filter feeders to top predators.

While previous research has linked overfishing to dramatic declines in some populations, the global status of reef-dwelling sharks and rays remains unknown.

　　The paper's first author and corresponding author, Samantha Sherman (Samantha Sherman) of Simon Fraser University in Canada, and collaborators used the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to assess all 134 coral reef sharks and Extinction risk for ray species.

They also compared the status of these species with all other reef species.

The study found that 59 percent of reef shark and ray species are endangered, such as the whitetip ruffed shark and the spotted ray, making them the most endangered group in the world outside of marine mammals.

　　Their research also found that fishing is the main threat to these species, along with habitat loss and climate change.

The researchers found that large species with wide distributions are most at risk of extinction, such as the bull shark and the reef manta ray, both of which are found in the waters of more than 60 countries.

The risk of extinction is greatest in countries with greater fishing pressure and less regulation.

　　The latest findings also serve as a reminder that the health of coral reefs and the hundreds of millions of people that coastal communities depend on may suffer serious consequences if conservation of reef sharks and rays is not enhanced, the authors said.

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