“A quarter of the world’s sharks and rays are threatened with extinction”- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

As top predators, sharks play a vital role for maintaining the balance of our oceans. However, more than 90 million sharks and rays are removed from the ocean each year, killed for their fins or caught as by-catch by fisheries targeting other species. At the present time, it is extremely rare to hear reports that shark and ray populations in a given region are in good health. Sudan remains one of the unique global hotspots on earth where this statement holds true. Sudan borders the Red Sea, one of the most diverse tropical seas. The architecture of the marine environment, supports a large aggregation of manta rays within the pristine Dungonab Bay and large schools of scalloped hammerheads sharks on nearly all the main offshore reefs. However, Sudan’s shark and ray populations remain under threat from human impacts and could very quickly follow the way of other regional populations – from healthy to endangered in a matter of years. Their conservation and management is therefore of both a regional and a global priority.

Learn more on conservation and management of shark and ray populations in Sudan-Shark and Ray Project