See more in our gallery: 鈥�Meet six winners and losers from wildlife trade meeting鈥�
IT LOOKS like it will be good news for sharks but bad news for polar bears at the .
As New Scientist went to press, delegates at the meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, had voted to increase protection for five shark species. Three were types of hammerhead. All final decisions will be made on Thursday.
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鈥淭his is a landmark moment showing that the world鈥檚 governments support sustainable fisheries and are concerned about the reckless over-exploitation of sharks for commercial use,鈥� says Heather Sohl, chief species advisor for the .
Sohl says overfishing driven by the luxury goods market is the main contributor to the near collapse of these shark populations, which will now be protected by legislature regulating, but not banning, their international trade.
At the other end of the spectrum, a US proposal to ban the export of polar bears and their parts was contested by 42 nations in an effort led by Canada鈥檚 Inuit population, who cited their economic reliance on the sale of the bears鈥� pelts.
The meeting was also the final goodbye for the laughing owl, Tasmanian tiger and crescent nailtail wallaby, among others, as they were removed from the CITES database following their extinction over the last century. 鈥淭his is a matter of book-keeping rather than a result of a sudden wave of extinctions,鈥� says Richard Thomas of , the wildlife trade monitoring network.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淗ammerheads protected鈥�
