IUCN Species of the Day: Great Hammerhead

 

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(tm)

Photo credit: Simon Rogerson

 

The Great Hammerhead, Sphyrna mokarran, is listed as ‘ENDANGERED’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. This large shark ranges widely throughout the tropical waters of the world, including the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and many smaller seas.

The Great Hammerhead is highly prized for its fins, and suffers very high levels of incidental mortality in other fisheries for tuna and tuna-like fishes. Like most other sharks, its slow growth and low reproduction rate makes it highly vulnerable to overexploitation. As a result, it has suffered serious declines, especially in parts of the eastern Atlantic where fishing effort is unmanaged and unmonitored.

The Great Hammerhead is in urgent need of coordinated conservation efforts involving the management of target and non-target fisheries. Fortunately, the increasing recognition of the detrimental effects of shark finning has led to the implementation of finning bans by fishing states in the United States, Australia and the European Union. Nevertheless, improved enforcement of legislation is required to prevent ongoing illegal finning activities.

 

Geographic Range of the Great Hammerhead

Credit: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ 

 

To learn more about the Great Hammerhead, click here.  Or visit the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ by clicking their logo below.

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To learn more about the Bush Warriors “Species of the Day” feature, please click here and read up on our initiative to raise awareness about the loss of earth’s biodiversity.

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