Governments have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays at an international wildlife trade conference. The measures, approved Friday at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, would ban the trade in several shark species and increase regulations on others. Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins, meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37% of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.
