Wildlife

Shark Recovery

The decline in the number of some shark and ray species in the northwestern Atlantic appears to have been reversed, thanks to improved fisheries management and conservation efforts.

Shark and ray populations have crashed by as much as 71% over the past 50 years, with about one-third of those marine creatures threatened with extinction. But writing in the journal PNAS, Nathan Pacoureau of Simon Fraser University says the implementation of the 1993 U.S. Fishery Management Plan for Sharks of the Atlantic Ocean is responsible for the turnaround. That act mandates catch reports and a ban on the catching of some species.