The San Francisco Chronicle
March 14, 2013
A major international meeting on wildlife trade ended Thursday with final decisions to extend protections for dozens of animal and plant species – including five types of sharks – that have come under severe pressure from soaring demand and overfishing.
Conservationists welcomed the decisions by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, to regulate trade in the threatened species, including for the first time trade in mantas and five shark species: the oceanic whitetip, the porbeagle and three types of hammerhead sharks. Shark populations have fallen sharply in recent years as demand for their fins, predominantly from China, has risen.