Two new national commitments to protect sharks and rays have been declared at the Our Ocean Conference this week, as Madagascar and Zanzibar declared sweeping new protections for some of the ocean’s most threatened species, a new milestone in what is becoming one of the most significant conservation turnarounds of the past decade.

The announcements were made during a session titled “Celebrating a Decade of Shark Conservation in East Africa: Profiles of Shark Champions,” hosted by the Shark Conservation Fund in partnership with the governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar, and supported by WCS.

Sharks and rays are now experiencing one of the fastest extinction crises of any vertebrate group on Earth, with more than 37% of species threatened with extinction – driven largely by overfishing and an international trade that, for decades, operated almost entirely without regulation.

The tide, however, is beginning to turn.

Madagascar announced full national protection for 14 species of sharks and rays under the country’s Wild Fauna Decree, including the critically endangered oceanic whitetip shark, whale sharks and iconic manta rays. Zanzibar went further, announcing full protection for 34 species in its coastal waters – among them hammerhead sharks, thresher sharks and the endemic Zanzibar guitarfish.

“The actions taken by the Madagascar government to protect these species, among other positive actions, comes at a time when sharks and rays need conservation efforts more than ever,” said Ravaka Ranaivoson, Partnership and Program Development Director for WCS Madagascar. “This highlights Madagascar’s commitment to the conservation and sustainable management of its marine resources.”

The announcements are the product of momentum that has been building for years. A decade ago, the global trade in sharks and rays was largely unregulated and these animals were fast running out of time. That has changed significantly.

At CITES CoP20 in November 2025, countries adopted every shark and ray proposal on the table, listing more than 70 species and bringing 96% of the global shark fin trade and 70% of shark and ray meat trade under international regulation for the first time. In total, 180 species are now listed under CITES, with 33 carrying a full commercial trade ban.

For WCS’s Luke Warwick, Senior Director of Threatened Marine Species, the scale of that shift – and what it could mean for the long-term future of these animals – is genuinely significant. “Sharks are an essential part of healthy ocean ecosystems,” he said.

“This rapidly accelerating global framework of laws, coupled to enforcement and local level conservation action gives us hope we can end the declines of the last half century, and start these ancient predators on the long road to recovery.”

The journey from global agreement to national law is rarely straightforward, and the fact that governments are now actively writing these protections into domestic legislation represents a critical step that earlier phases of the conservation effort could not always guarantee.

John Mandelman, Executive Director of the Shark Conservation Fund, acknowledged both the scale of progress and the distance still to travel. “From global decisions to local action on the water, the scale and pace of progress in shark conservation is truly remarkable,” he said. “Yet threatened sharks and rays, and the habitats they depend on, still require the strongest protections. Together, these efforts are creating an essential pathway toward recovery.”

From the high-level agreement of CITES to tonight’s announcements on the Swahili Coast, the architecture of shark conservation is beginning to look like something that might actually hold – provided the enforcement, the funding, and the political will continue to follow.

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