Riley Elliott Instagram – From one of my biggest mentors in conservation @shawnheinrichs provides some incredible news that requiem sharks have been listed in CITES which means that they cannot be exported without a permit from countries harvesting them, proving that their catch is sustainable. This is incredible news as 100million sharks a year are killed for the shark fin trade. The most exploited species is my PhD baby, the blue shark, which has been so overlooked for decades now, along with many of the other species now listed on CITES. While this does not provide ultimate protection, it establishes a significant hurdle for exporting countries to prove that such catch is sustainable. For my home country of NZ, and many others with poor management data for such species, due to low observer coverage, hopefully this catalyses a much sought after management policy, which is cameras on boats. Cameras provide data that would not only benefit sharks but also all bycatch species including seabirds, dolphin and turtles. Having lost 70% of the worlds large sharks in the last 50 years this is a massive conservation success. So thank you to all of those who helped get this across the line. The sharks are smiling :)