Marine Wildlife Victory: Why New Protections for Manta Rays and Sharks Change Everything

0:00 New protections for manta rays and sharks that score a major victory in shark protections. In this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, we're diving into an incredible story on how these ocean giants just got a powerful new shield of protection and what it means for the future of our seas. So join us as we reveal the challenges these animals faced, the winds we achieved, and why this breakthrough can change the game for ocean conservation. Stay tuned. You're not gonna wanna miss this one. Let's start the show. Hey everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, marine biologist and science communicator here to tell you about what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.

0:46 And on today's episode, we're gonna be talking about new protections underneath this international trade law called CITES and it's protecting manta rays, devil rays, shark species like oceanic white tips, smooth hammerheads, and even thresher sharks. There are also other oceanic animals that are protected. Some reef fish and some sea cucumbers that people don't always talk about. But we're gonna be focusing in on the sharky, the elasmobranchs types, because that's what people love to hear about. It's a huge win in terms of protection. It's gonna ban a lot of international trade of these animals. We're gonna talk about why this is so important. We're gonna talk about what other successes have been had at this level. It's gonna be really good and you're gonna love it, and we talk about successes.

1:28 Successes come when we talk about different species and the different types of protection. And today we're gonna be talking about sharks. We're gonna focus on that. But there are a lot of other things that don't get the right attention, like seagrasses. And if you've heard this podcast any time in the last month, you know that I have a podcast that I want to launch called The Seagrass Effect. It's talking about the protection of seagrass meadows, the conservation, the research, the restoration and just talking about seagrass meadows and their importance, their biodiversity importance, how there's such a productive habitat to be able to protect small fish, juvenile fish, and invertebrates to be able to say, Hey, you know what, we're gonna protect these so that they can move to other habitats, such as mangroves, such as coral reefs and other habitats in the ocean that are super, super important.

2:09 So we're gonna be starting, we're gonna be launching a podcast based on crowdfunding research. if you go to speak up for blue.com/seagrass, you can help crowdfund this podcast today. The launch is gonna happen once we reach our goal. It's gonna happen for the whole year. We're gonna do one episode a week for the entire year, once this crowdfunding campaign gets funded to its goal. Go to speak up for blue.com/seagrass to help us hear more about seagrass and talk more about seagrass so that we can not only share it amongst ourselves and you, the audience, and the Speak Up for Blue community as part of this podcast network, but also for people in the research business. Some people in the conservation business, people in the restoration business who don't know about all the different studies and all the different people and haven't heard from them in a while, and they wanna maybe connect.

2:53 They can connect through this podcast by listening to it, by listening to their colleagues and what kind of research and work that they're doing. And it can all happen on the Seagrass Effect. Go to speak up for blue.com/seagrass to help fund and launch this podcast. It's gonna be very, very important. So, that's something to look forward to in the future. Okay, so let's start off with a backstory about these species. So you have manta rays, devil rays, you have a number of different shark species. All these species were hunted. They were hunted for parts of them that would be traded across national boundaries. So across country lines so people can buy them and use them for whatever they want to use them for. Some mentioned, you know, the demand for shark fins, manta ray gill plates that were used for cultural and medicinal purposes, and how this international trade put them in a decline.

3:43 So the fact is, the demand for these animals, the parts of these animals, shark fin soup, these gill plates, these manta ray gill plates were causing these animals to be in higher demand than they should have been that make them unsustainable in terms of a population. Meaning there were more of them being hunted than were being kept so that the population could persist and do more. Now with devil rays and manta rays, we don't really know a ton about them. We know a lot there are. There's the Manta Trust, and we know more than we've had in the last few decades. However, we still don't know a lot about them. We still don't know their full distribution. We don't know what makes 'em tick. We don't know how their migration patterns help them survive and how it makes them vulnerable to other trade and legal implications in terms of being hunted.

4:25 And so there are a lot of things that we still don't know. We need to protect them from that. In the meantime, we need to protect them from being hunted. And so the demand for their gill plates has to stop. And so we had to make sure that the protections are put in place. Same with thresher sharks, same with the smooth hammerhead shark, same with oceanic white tip. Their populations were dwindling because they were being hunted mostly for fish, like through fishing, and not just for fins, but through fishing. So they were not being regulated well. A lot of reports were coming out that they were in decline. And so they needed to be that extra protection. Now, for the first thing here is they were already protected under CITES. Now CITES is known as Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

5:10 So it's the Convention of International Trade and Endangered Species is what CITES stands for. If they're put on this actual list, in the CITES list, these animals, then there's II different appendices, right? If you were on Appendix, I believe it was first they were put on Appendix II. So they were added in Appendix II. They have some restrictions that are applied to it. Species that are not necessarily currently threatened with extinction, but trade of them is regulated so that it is legal, sustainable, and traceable. So any kind of illegal trade going in and out of countries was banned. They were monitored a little bit more frequently. There was research protections that were put on so they could get extra research done. There's money to study them a little bit more.

5:51 International trade requires export permits with non detrimental findings. So evidence of trade will not harm the survival of these animals, like the whole population. So everything was monitored. There was more research priorities too, and there was more money for research for them. So that was really helpful. However, there was no excessive ban on these species. Whale sharks were put in 2003, basking sharks as well as in 2003 on the Appendix II. In 2016, thresher sharks, silky sharks were added to Appendix II as well. Now, Appendix II doesn't ban outright trade, but it does allow for specific restrictions as long as they're not being harmed. They're allowed to be traded as long as there's proof that they're not being harmed, the population is not being harmed. Appendix I has the highest protection.

6:33 International commercial trade and species or parts or derivatives of those species is generally prohibited unless there's some kind of exception with very limited exemption. So there are times when you can trade 'em, but it's very, very limited. So the protection is a lot more in terms of this international trade. So some of the sharks were upgraded to Appendix I, and that was at a most recent conference at COP20, the Convention of Parties on CITES. 20 is the 20th meeting in 2025. So certain species including oceanic white tip, sharks, thresher sharks as well. Smooth hammerhead sharks have been moved to Appendix I banning international trade, commercial trade of that species. Manta rays and devil rays were the same as well. So for certain rays that would then end the larger sharks.

7:14 So whale sharks, they were also the same set. Proposed certain rays, meaning trade bans or near complete bans for international commerce of their body parts or specimens. So that's pretty cool. There's been extra protections, which is great. It does mean that these animals were still threatened and their populations were still threatened because of those traits, because they were getting hunted. So now that some of these species have Appendix I status, it means that they can't get traded in whoever's part of this Convention of Parties through these countries legally. It can't happen. It won't happen unless there's specific exemptions for that. the first question I had when we started looking at the levels of protection, I started looking at what other animals, especially ocean animals, were added to this Appendix I for CITES that showed a benefit to the species.

7:58 'Cause like sometimes when we have these international agreements, they're not enforced very well and some countries will enforce it more than others. And usually it's in the countries where the species is really sold or really traded with a lot of culturally significant priorities on it. And so they're not enforced in necessarily those countries. Now when they are enforced though, it does actually add success. So for the Mediterranean monk seal that was added to the Appendix I, they were pretty widespread at one point, but over time they got pushed to the brink of extinction. Part of the reason was they were hunted historically for their skins and oil and their habitats were also disturbed by humans. So when they got listed under stricter international protections, it helped reduce the lingering pressure from trade and gave local conservation groups more support to protect their remaining habitats.

8:44 As a result, their numbers have actually started to show some slow recovery, especially in protected areas. And then for the Hawaiian Monk Seal, the story is a bit similar. They faced a lot of threats from things like entanglement and fishing gear and loss of habitat. So not necessarily hunted, but it's still similar where they were losing their lives because of this. And while they were not necessarily traded in the same way as the Mediterranean monk seal, the stronger protections under CITES meant more resources for conservation and stricter rules for their habitat. This meant that they're still endangered, but they're getting a lot more focus and a lot more protection for now. I could share a story. When I was in Hawaii, a lot of the times when a monk seal would come up on the beach, somebody would be dispatched from NOAA.

9:27 Usually a volunteer. There's a lot of volunteers in Hawaii, especially on the island of Oahu. They knew, like they would come in. They would cordon off the area with pylons. They would have some volunteers sit there and provide education for the animals. They actually know each and every animal it seems, and so they can tell like who's who, what their characteristics are, like, what their personalities, like, how long they tend to stay there, where do they end up going. And they really know a lot about the species, especially the individuals of that population. 'cause there's not very many around, especially the island of Oahu. I think it was under a hundred, but don't quote me. So of course if it's under a hundred, they know these animals. They can recognize 'em through like scrapes and scars and so forth. And they can understand who they are, which is kind of cool. Now, the last animal that I looked up was the olive ridley sea turtle that's on CITES Appendix I. Now they're often impacted by international trade for their turtle shells as well as their eggs.

10:14 So once CITES protection was put in place and other conservation measures came in, it helped curb the trade and allowed more local conservation efforts to take place like protecting nesting beaches. So over time, these combined efforts have really helped stabilize some of their populations, which is great. And in the case of Green Sea Turtles, not that they're on the CITES, but they're also like the conservation efforts have actually helped get them made from like going extinct or endangered to least vulnerable, which is really nice. So the fact that we have three examples, three great examples of species that have gone to almost the brink of extinction in some cases at some point, and CITES has come in and helped that population. Notice that it's not just CITES that helps this population, it's other conservation efforts.

10:58 And it's the fact that because they're listed on these international agreements, it helps alleviate and get money for that species to do research on the species monitoring and conservation measures and protection and education for a lot of these species, like the Hawaiian Monk Seal and others. So that's a really great thing. And also it disperses money for conservation organizations to help protect nesting beaches for the Olive, Ridley sea turtle, as well as protect beaches when these animals come up on the beach and they wanna rest or haul out and just kind of relax and people can see them from a distance. They're not being idiots, like throwing sand on them and stuff, which I've seen before because there's somebody there to tell people to stop. And I think that's a really important aspect of this conservation is the education and the interaction with the community.

11:39 Not only providing education, but protecting them from some community members who just don't have the right mindset when it comes to protecting animals. And so this is a really great set of stories that shows that having Appendix I can show some success stories. It all depends on how the money's dispersed, who is dispersed to, and how each country enforces CITES to make sure that these animals are protected. There is illegal rings that go on. However, those are harder to go by because it takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of sneaking around. You gotta do a lot to do that. And I'm sure it happens but for the most part, when it's not legal, then people tend to follow the law and just not trade these anymore. And hopefully we'll see the same thing happen when we look down the road at these other species that we'll start to see this species recovery.

12:24 As monitoring is able to happen more and more from all around the world because more money is alleviated to study these animals and monitor and protect and educate people on these animals, that's gonna be a big thing. So the fact is that the new CITES protection in Appendix I makes it really easy to protect these species or easier to protect these species. Having the different levels of protection, bringing them in as Appendix II, people probably thought, Hey, it was a great celebration when people brought in the min, especially in 2016 when we got a lot of sharks, like the silky sharks and, I forget what the other, I think it was a hammerhead shark as well, like protected under CITES. It was a huge, huge thing. Other sharks got added, stingrays got added. Manta Rays and devil rays got added. That was a huge feat, but they weren't protected at the highest level.

13:06 And that takes a lot of work to put it there. But it lays the groundwork under the Appendix II to get information, more information on that species to show really where they're at. A lot of the times these species aren't studied very well 'cause there's not a lot of money to give 'em. They're widespread around the world. It costs a lot of money to go out in the field to monitor these species. They'll monitor any real species in the ocean. So having the money available to do that allowed them to put it up to Appendix I. Now, this is not a good thing for the species in terms of where they're at right now, but it's a good thing to where they could be in the future if this CITES law is enforced and this agreement is enforced 'cause that's something that will have to happen. So the fact remains is that sharks need protection, and today we got those protection.

13:47 So this is a huge conservation win for smooth hammerheads, thresher sharks, ocean white tip sharks, as well as devil rays and manta rays. This is a massive, massive win. Even the sea cucumbers and some of the reef fish that were also added to Appendix II. This is gonna help them with their protection and make sure that they're not hunted incessantly and make sure that they're not traded over borders. We may not be able to find out who's doing the hunting or when they do the hunting, but we'll make sure that we are not allowing the trade of these animals to go across these borders that follow CITES. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Is it better than what we've had before? Yes, absolutely. And it's a huge win that we should be celebrating. But we should also celebrate the fact that you are now more aware of this positive commitment to protect sharks and manta rays and devil rays.

14:33 And the fact is that you should still continue to learn about these species, continue to learn about where the problems arise, what countries the problems arise in, and why they should be enforced and start to pressure your political representative to make sure that these are enforced in your country. Whether you're from Canada, US, anywhere around the world. It's an important aspect to protect these types of protections, to make sure that they're enforced, make sure that they're done. And I'm so happy that we were able to talk about this on this episode today because the world has been going to crap, let's be honest. And it's nice to be able to celebrate some wins, especially when it comes to sharks and rays. This is something that has been on the docket for a long time.

15:14 I'm so happy that we're able to see this protection, and it comes from a lot of people who are advocating for this protection. In 2016 to get them on Appendix II, it took a long of people to get together, start a movement. Shark Stanley was a huge movement. I've talked about on this podcast. It was a little cutout of a hammerhead shark that was started by one or two people, and it spread across the world to everybody. They all took pictures with Shark Stanley, like this cutout. They would get a cutout, they would cut it out. Classes, kids, adults of all ages, of all professional and cultural backgrounds around the world took pictures and those pictures were printed out and given to the people who were in charge of putting these sharks on CITES showing that there are a lot of people around the world that want to protect these sharks no matter where they're from, what they do, protection of sharks was really important.

15:58 We got them on Appendix II and now we have 'em on Appendix I to provide not only that, we, they'll have more information on to provide more protection and hopefully we'll start to see an increase in their population. Nice and slow and steady. Quicker the better. But slow and steady always wins the race. And I'd love to see a recuperation of these. So I wanna thank you guys for joining me on today's episode. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube. If you are listening to this on your favorite podcast app, God, I'd love you for sticking with me 'cause that's how I started. I'm continuing going to be putting out these audio podcasts as well as on video. Same podcast, so you can listen to it wherever you want or watch it wherever you want. Let me know what you think. Just go to Instagram. DM me at How to Protect the Ocean.

16:39 Also on my profile. There's a link to follow and you can follow me. You can also rate and review the podcast. I would love ratings and reviews because that really helps people. It kind of gives us social proof of why you'd like this podcast so much, why you listen to it each and every day or whenever you can. So I really appreciate that. And of course, thank you so much for joining us on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host Andrew Lewin from the True Nord strong and free. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.