In 2010, Greenpeace International added the school shark, shortfin mako shark, mackerel shark, tiger shark and spiny dogfish to its seafood red list, a list of common supermarket fish that are often sourced from unsustainable fisheries.[182] Advocacy group Shark Trust campaigns to limit shark fishing. Advocacy group Seafood Watch directs American consumers to not eat sharks.[183]
Under the auspices of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention, the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks was concluded and came into effect in March 2010. It was the first global instrument concluded under CMS and aims at facilitating international coordination for the protection, conservation and management of migratory sharks, through multilateral, intergovernmental discussion and scientific research.
In July 2013, New York state, a major market and entry point for shark fins, banned the shark fin trade joining seven other states of the United States and the three Pacific U.S. territories in providing legal protection to sharks.[184]
In the United States, and as of January 16, 2019, 12 states including (Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, California, Illinois, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, Rhode Island, Washington, New York and Texas) along with 3 U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands) have passed laws against the sale or possession of shark fins.[185][186]
Several regions now have shark sanctuaries or have banned shark fishing—these regions include American Samoa, the Bahamas, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Guam, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau.[187][188][189]
In April 2020 researchers reported to have traced the origins of shark fins of endangered hammerhead sharks from a retail market in Hong Kong back to their source populations and therefore the approximate locations where the sharks were first caught using DNA analysis.[190][191]
In July 2020 scientists reported results of a survey of 371 reefs in 58 nations estimating the conservation status of reef sharks globally. No sharks have been observed on almost 20% of the surveyed reefs and shark depletion was strongly associated with both socio-economic conditions and conservation measures.[192][193] Sharks are considered to be a vital part of the ocean ecosystem.
According to a 2021 study in Nature,[194] overfishing has resulted in a 71% global decline in the number of oceanic sharks and rays over the preceding 50 years. The oceanic whitetip, and both the scalloped hammerhead and great hammerheads are now classified as critically endangered.[195] Sharks in tropical waters have declined more rapidly than those in temperate zones during the period studied.[196] A 2021 study published in Current Biology found that overfishing is currently driving over one-third of sharks and rays to extinction.[197]