The Problem

Elasmobranches, the taxonomic group that encompasses sharks, stingrays, sawfish and chimaeras, have inhabited Earth’s oceans for millions of years.
 
Today, all 1000 species of this group still in existence could face total extinction because of human activity. The last IUCN study on 274 species of elasmobranches found that 59 are threatened all over the world and the remaining 84 are either endangered on a regional basis or nearly so.
 
Every year, more than 100 million sharks are captured by fisheries around the globe; in many cases they are either discarded or only between 2 to 8% of their flesh is kept (their fins), which represents 240,000 tons of wasted meat.
 
Some species like the sawfish (Pristis pristis), blue skate (Dipturus batis), the smoothback angel shark (Squatina oculata) and the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) are at the brink of extinction and many others like the great white shark (Cetorhinus maximus), the tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus) and the devil fish (Mobular mobular) are seriously threatened.