Today, more than 20 collaborating partners including the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) have launched the Mediterranean Angel Sharks: Regional Action Plan. It provides a framework for conservation action for Angelsharks in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean is a hotspot of extinction risk for chondricthyans (sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras), making it a priority region for conservation action. Of the 73 species of Mediterranean chondrichthyans assessed by IUCN, 50 per cent of rays and 54 per cent of sharks face an elevated risk of extinction, with Angelsharks an example of one of the families where all species present in the region are threatened.

CMS and its Family set the course for developing their contributions to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework which is expected to provide a "New Deal for Nature" for the entire international community. Two years away from its adoption, the post-2020 framework presents the opportunity to raise the visibility of migratory wildlife and promote its conservation. Last week, the CMS Standing Committee (Bonn, 23-24 October 2018) endorsed the establishment of a Working Group (WG) on the development of CMS Family contributions to the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

On 12 July, during the 33rd Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI33), held in Rome, management solutions for ghost gear, also known as abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), and bycatch were discussed in a side event. FAO Member States Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji, Palau, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Panama served as hosts for the event organized in collaboration with FAO, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), World Animal Protection, WWF and CMS.

At a second special ceremony held yesterday in the margins of the UNFCCC COP23 in Bonn, Minister Anne Désirée Ouloto of Côte d’Ivoire signed the Memoranda of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks and on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MOU). Côte d’Ivoire thus becomes the 48th Signatory to the Sharks MOU and the 59th Signatory to the Raptors MOU.