Now until November, world leaders are preparing to meet at CITES CoP19 to vote on shark protections. If adopted, more than 60 species of sharks including endangered and critically endangered hammerheads, guitarfish and requiem sharks would be protected. Requiem sharks make up the majority of the fin trade - as much as 85.5% - and most are threatened with extinction (Cardenosa et al. 2020). Panama’s proposal to list the requiem sharks in CITES Appendix II would be a game changer, shifting the percentage of the fin trade managed by CITES from 25% to 90%. Requiem sharks (50+ in total) include blue sharks, grey reef sharks, lemon sharks, and Caribbean reef sharks.

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