WILDTRUST Senior Research Assistant, Leigh de Necker, will be attending and presenting at the Sharks International Conference, taking place next month in Colombo, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
Read more about her presentation and the conference here: www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ays...
Last weekend a group of freedivers were treated to the best that Aliwal Shoal, an MPA and ISRA, has to offer 🦈 Black tip & white tip reef sharks, bull sharks, dolphins, rays, and an incredible diversity of reef life.
Video credit: Angie van der Hoogen / @saltescape
Protecting sharks protects food security.
Sharks are essential to the balance of ocean ecosystems that millions of people rely on for food and livelihood.
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Image credit: Tom Vierus / Ocean Image Bank
Who is responsible, and what is the process, for identifying an Important Shark and Ray Area (ISRA)?
The ISRAs initiative is led by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group, who work to address the global extinction crisis faced by sharks and rays.
South Africa is known as the Rainbow Nation - and that diversity doesn’t end on land.
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Image credits: Steve Benjamin | Animal Ocean
What is the goal of the Important Shark and Ray Area (ISRA) identification process?
What is the mission for Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs)?
WATCH: Handling guidelines for anglers when catching rays
Rays are highly sensitive to capture stress, so taking extra care when handling them can determine their post-capture survival.
Share this video with friends or fishing groups and communities 🎣
South Africa is home to an extraordinary number of endemic marine species - found nowhere else on Earth. Protecting our endemic sharks and rays means protecting our heritage.
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Pictured: Pyjama shark
Image credits: Steve Benjamin | Animal Ocean
What is the purpose for identifying Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs)?
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How are Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) identified?
The identification of ISRAs is achieved through the application of scientifically based criteria.
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We’ll be breaking ISRAs down next based on their Purpose; Vision; Mission; and Goal.
Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) vs Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
Although equally as important, ISRAs are not MPAs, as no associated management measures are integrated in their identification.
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Healthy oceans start with healthy predators.
In South Africa, species like the white shark and ragged-tooth shark play a critical role in keeping marine ecosystems balanced.
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Pictured: White shark
Image credit: Cassandra Scott / Ocean Image Bank
Why are ISRAs important?
The world is heading towards the 30x30 target (protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030) and these ISRAs help to pinpoint key areas for decision-makers to prioritise for the future of sharks and rays.
Read more here: sharkrayareas.org/about-isras/
UPDATE: Debate is intensifying over a proposal to install shark nets at a public beach in Tinley Manor ahead of the opening of a new Club Med resort on South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal coast.
Read more here: news.mongabay.com/2026/03/prop...
What is an Important Shark and Ray Area (ISRA)?
We’ll be going into more detail on how ISRAs are identified in later posts.
Find out more about ISRAs here: sharkrayareas.org/about-isras/
Sharks and rays are the architects of ocean balance.
Protective sharks in South Africa is about safeguarding the resilience and productivity of our oceans.
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Image credit: Cassandra Scott / Ocean Image Bank
NEWS: In Florida, scientists develop cheap way to keep sharks off fishing hooks
Read more here: news.mongabay.com/2026/02/its-...
Pictured: Blue shark, which are particularly susceptible to being caught by longliner fishing vessels.
Image credit: Ron Watkins | Ocean Image Bank
NEWS: The Save Our Seas Foundation Angola Elasmo Project is revealing surprising ways fishing and conservation can compliment each other at fishing landing sites along Angola's coastline.
Read more here: saveourseas.com/update/conse...
Photo Credit: Ana Lúcia Furtado Soares | Angola Elasmo Project
Warren’s sixgill sawshark is a small, bottom-dwelling shark found along the east and south coasts of South Africa, from shallow waters at 10 m down to 430 m (and occasionally as deep as 915 m). It is believed to be a southern African endemic.
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A juvenile Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) was found dead at Alkantstrand, Richards Bay on Saturday morning, entangled in shark nets.
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Video credit: Abie Seedie
Sharks and rays are facing one of the fastest extinction crises of any vertebrate group on Earth, and Panama is leading the way for ocean conservation.
Pictured: Blue spotted ribbontail ray, Sodwana Bay - iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Image credit: Marc Thoresson
Read more: time.com/7362449/shar...
Happy Valentine's Day from the Sharks Under Attack team 💙
We love all our sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras (ghost sharks), even if we're biased. We hope you love them too!
Share these cards with someone you think is fin-tastic 🦈
STUDY: Critical shark and ray habitats (ISRAs) in Western Indian Ocean largely unprotected
Read more here: news.mongabay.com/.../critical...
Full paper here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Image credit: Vincent Kneefel / Ocean Image Bank
The striped catshark, affectionately known as the pyjama shark, is endemic to the coastal waters of South Africa.
While classified by the IUCN as 'Least Concern', the striped catshark is still on the TOPS List as Protected.
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NEWS: Shark nets at R2bn Club Med development in KZN may threaten endangered species
Read more here: www.news24.com/.../scientis...
Image credit: Steve Benjamin / Animal Ocean
The leopard catshark and striped catshark are two species of the genus Poroderma. These small, bottom-dwelling sharks are found only along South Africa’s coast, where they live on rocky reefs and among kelp beds.
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The tiger shark is a large, wide-ranging apex predator found in tropical coastal waters around the world.
As top predators, tiger sharks play an important role in shaping marine ecosystems.
Read more about the tiger shark here: web.facebook.com/share/p/1Xk1...
The giant guitarfish is a large wedgefish found in shallow coastal waters of the southwest Indian Ocean and is the only species of its kind found in South Africa.
Its numbers have declined sharply over the past 40 years, particularly in Mozambique.
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NEWS: New Research Highlights Glaring Gaps in Marine Protection for Sharks & Rays in the Western Indian Ocean
To access the full study, visit onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Images by Leigh de Necker & Devin Trull
