Guiding random acts of kindness: conservation planning for sharks and rays

Significant progress has been made in the past three decades of shark, ray and ghost shark conservation. The first decade saw finning spark globa concern for chondricthhyans as wildlife, leading to fisheries management initiatives and international trade regulations. In the second decade, comprehensive Red List assessments were produced for all species, building on a global status report. This strong science foundation enabled a transition to extensive evidence-based conservation planning that resulted in strong initial signs of action, particularly for sawfishes, devil rays, and angel sharks, in the third decade. This chapter shows how the conservation challenge can be narrowed by resolving taxonomy uncertainties and narrowing down historic and current geographic distributions. Significant challenges remain, particularly in minimizing the fishing mortality of Endangered and Critically Endangered species through catch and trade regulations and the implementation of science-based catch limits for Vulnerable and Near Threatened species. Nevertheless, the initial stages of conservation planning have proven successful in mobilizing the scientific community to find ways of gathering data for incredibly rare species and engaging conservation partners and donors to shift their agendas to support shark and ray conservation. The foundations have been laid for the coming decade of action to ensure significant progress toward systematically recovering sharks and rays by 2030.