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Making CITES count for sharks and rays

Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026)Cite this article

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Recent expanded Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listings for sharks and rays are welcome — yet seizing this opportunity requires that international trade policy is treated not as an end point, but as a catalyst for wider regulatory and market-based reforms.

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Fig. 1: A simplified conceptual diagram of the drivers of shark and ray overfishing.
Fig. 2: Hypothetical supply and demand curves for shark markets and potential perverse market-mediated effects of trade interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Hollie Booth

  2. School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, UK

    Hollie Booth

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  1. Hollie Booth
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Correspondence to Hollie Booth.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks Nicholas Dulvy for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Booth, H. Making CITES count for sharks and rays. Nat Ecol Evol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-02984-9

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