Fish Index
Sharks have lived in our oceans for 420 million years and rays for c. 200 million years. Populations of many species have decreased by as much as 90% in the last 50 years and are in desperate need of conservation.
The sites of the aid organisations describe the plight of sharks in detail. Check them out for up to date information.
Sharks are essential to the health of reefs, ensuring that only the healthiest fish survive. Massive overfishing has decimating populations and must be stopped.
Check out the aid organisations and if you are in the European Union, vote now in the Stop Finning campaign to try and motivate the EU to ban shark finning.
Rays are as much threatened as sharks. The global extinction risk now cites c.75% as threatened with extinction. Most of these were very common only a few years ago.
As with sharks, their long life-spans, the many years before they can breed and the very low number of offspring have contributed to their catastrophic decline in numbers.