The global landscape of shark conservation is a study in extreme contrasts. On one side are nations that have converted their territorial waters into safe havens for sharks, realizing that a live shark generates massive economic and ecological value. On the other side, high global fishing demands drive over 100 million shark deaths annually, fueled by the lucrative and often poorly regulated international trade in shark fins and meat.
Evaluating the global divide reveals who is doing the most to protect these apex predators—and who is driving them toward extinction.
The Gold Standard: The Top Protectors
The world’s leading shark protectors have moved past simple regulations. They have banned commercial shark exploitation entirely across massive swathes of the ocean, establishing expansive Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and “shark sanctuaries” where possession or trade of shark products is a major crime.
1. The Bahamas
Rob freediving with reef sharks in the Bahamas.
Often called the “Shark Capital of the World,” The Bahamas is a global pioneer. In 1993, the country banned long-line fishing (a commercial method using thousands of hooks that catches sharks as accidental “bycatch”). In 2011, they officially designated their entire 243,000 square miles of territorial waters as a national shark sanctuary.
- The Strategy: Commercial shark fishing, possession, and the sale or trade of any shark products are completely illegal.
- The Result: The Bahamas proved that conservation pays. A thriving shark-diving ecotourism industry injects an estimated $114 million USD annually into the local economy every year, proving sharks are worth far more alive than dead.
This country has proven that shark ecotourism creates sustainable livelihoods. Unlike shark fishing (which provides one-time profits), ecotourism offers long-term income for dive operators, hotels, restaurants, and transport services. Shark tours help fund research and monitoring, many operators contribute to photo-ID databases and citizen science, aiding shark tracking. Additionally, the revenue from shark tourism helps enforce shark sanctuaries.
Tours have educational benefits as well, in that they help counter misinformation. Direct encounters with sharks replace fear with respect, debunking myths perpetuated by the media. This in turn promotes stewardship, tourists often become advocates, supporting shark conservation policies. Many of these programs also include educational outreach in schools which fosters conservation values in the next generation.
2. French Polynesia
Black tip sharks & ray in the lagoon of Moorea. © Greg Lecoeur, https://www.greglecoeur.com.
French Polynesia protects its ocean in two overlapping ways, and together they make it a global leader in shark and ocean conservation.
The first protects a species. In 2006, French Polynesia became the first country to ban shark fishing across its entire exclusive economic zone (EEZ), extending the ban to all species in 2012. That created the world’s largest shark sanctuary, covering all 4.8 million km² of its waters.
The second restricts activities. Fully protected marine areas prohibit a much broader range of industrial uses, including commercial fishing, seabed mining, oil and gas drilling, and other extractive activities, but they apply only to designated zones. On June 7, 2026, French Polynesia announced an expansion of this network by 520,000 km², bringing the total to 1.4 million km², or 30% of its EEZ.
So sharks are protected everywhere in French Polynesian waters. Within those 1.4 million km², nearly everything else is protected too.
3. Palau
Credit: Pexels.
Palau created the world’s very first official shark sanctuary in 2009. This small island nation led a regional movement spearheaded by indigenous groups across Micronesia, protecting over 600,000 square kilometers of ocean, more than 80% of its nation’s waters. Palau treats its marine environment as an economic and ecological sanctuary, prohibiting the retention of any shark species. Other countries with nationwide shark fishing bans include Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Cook Islands, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Tokelau Islands, the UK Virgin Islands and Chagos Islands, and the Maldives.
Other countries with the largest no-take Marine Protected Areas include: the Galápagos Marine Reserve in Ecuador, Cocos Island National park in Costa Rica and Hermandad Marine Reserve, which is a migratory corridor between the Galápagos and Costa Rica. Additionally Mexico’s Revillagigedo National Park, Australia’s Coral Sea Marine Park.
The USA has the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. However in 2026, President Trump issued a proclamation opening parts of both to commercial fishing. They were both created by President George W. Bush in 2006, and expanded more than fourfold by President Obama in 2016. Trump argued the restrictions unnecessarily limited the U.S. fishing industry. Conservation organizations, Native Hawaiian groups, and many marine scientists opposed the decision, arguing it undermines one of the world’s most important ocean conservation areas.
The Danger Zones: The Worst Offenders
On the opposite end of the spectrum, high mortality rates are driven by a mix of massive commercial domestic fishing fleets, international trade hubs, and legal loopholes regarding “finning.”
While shark finning—the practice of cutting off a shark’s fins and throwing the still-living animal back into the sea to drown—is widely banned on paper, the trade of loose fins and targeted shark fishing remains rampant.
1. Indonesia
Madison Stewart, creator of Project Hiu in Indonesia.
According to data compiled by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, Indonesia consistently ranks as the world’s number-one shark-fishing nation by volume. They land approximately 100,000–120,000 tonnes of sharks and rays annually, which translate to an estimated 2 million to 10+ million sharks per year.
Sharks and ray fishing is deeply embedded in the livelihoods of many coastal communities, making sweeping bans difficult to enforce. More than half of Indonesia’s massive catch is exported directly to major Asian markets, and wildlife monitoring groups report that illegal shark and ray exports remain rampant due to poor tracking at remote ports.
There are some encouraging developments in the country as of late, including Project Hiu, Hiu being the Indonesian word for Shark. It is an initiative founded by Australian filmmaker and diver Madison Stewart, which aims to provide alternative income to fishermen in one of the largest shark fisheries in Indonesia, and the world. By hiring the shark fishing boats and locals that crew them, this organization seeks to engage the fisherman in a very different role. Tourism, a natural, alternative income that simultaneously and effectively protects sharks. They have saved 7,740 sharks so far since starting to hire boats.
In another area of Indonesia, an amazing project has had incredible wins. Two decades ago, sharks were scarce in Raja Ampat’s reefs due to relentless shark finning and industrial fishing. Many species, including leopard sharks, became locally extinct. The Misool Foundation was created to reverse this devastation. They established Misool Marine Reserve, within the newly created Raja Ampat Marine Protected Area, a 300,000-acre conservation area for over 1,600 fish species and 75% of the world’s known coral species, patrolled daily by local rangers. Where a former shark finning camp once stood, they built Misool Resort, which generates tourism revenue to fund their holistic conservation programs. Since 2005, Misool Foundation’s efforts have increased overall fish abundance by 248% and shark abundance by 190% within the Reserve, a staggering impact for the long-term recovery of the world’s richest reefs.
Misool is a part of a collaboration between more than 90 conservation organizations, aquariums, universities, NGOs, and government agencies to breed endangered Indo-Pacific leopard sharks. The global ReShark coalition is breeding them in accredited aquariums before reintroducing them into the wild through its StAR (Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery) Project—the first shark rewilding program of its kind. Once bred, the fertilized eggs are transported to Raja Ampat, Indonesia, they hatch in sea-based nurseries operated by Indonesian conservationists. Young sharks are raised by local “shark nannies”, and they are tagged with acoustic transmitters. Then they are released into protected waters and monitored to track survival and reproduction. So far, more than 60 juvenile leopard sharks have been released, with a long-term goal of restoring a self-sustaining wild population.
2. Spain
A Spanish bottom trawler, Lodeiro. Image © Willem Oldenberg
While many assume the shark trade is exclusively an Asian industry, Spain is actually one of the world’s largest exporters of shark products. Spain operates a massive industrial fishing fleet that lands tons of sharks annually—particularly blue sharks and shortfin makos—in the Atlantic. Since 2013, the EU “Fins Naturally Attached” regulation prohibits without exception the storage, transhipment and landing of all shark fins in EU waters and on all EU ships. The fins must remain naturally attached to the carcass when the ship is unloaded in port. However, the fins can then be separated from the animal and exported to Asia. While the EU has introduced much tighter tracking codes and customs controls, Eurostat data reveals that Spain remains a dominant supplier of frozen shark fins and meat to Asian trading hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong.
Therefore, the EU does not ban the shark fin trade completely. Instead it bans finning at sea, and still allows the trade of legally landed shark products. The EU is still a major shark fin export hub, even under FNA rules.
Spain does have a large MPA network made up of National Marine Reserves, National Parks, EU Natura 2000 marine sites, and specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI). Overall, Spain protects well over 10% of its marine waters. Some are strict no-take zones, meaning no fishing allowed, however many are multi-use areas (regulated fishing allowed). Spain does not have a ban on all shark fishing or shark meat and product consumption.
3. India
Photo: A worker drags a shark to be weighed at Kochi harbour. Shamsheer Yousaf / Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism.
India lands a massive volume of sharks and rays annually, frequently ranking in the top three globally alongside Indonesia. Marine policies in the region face a heavy clash between conservation and local survival. Sharks are primarily caught by commercial fishers as a source of cheap local protein or accidental bycatch. Because of high coastal population density and decentralized fishing ports, enforcing catch limits or implementing large-scale species protections has proven incredibly difficult. It banned the export of shark fins in 2015, but the illegal trade is still thriving. With no domestic market for shark fins, almost all the fins from India end up in the international market. Hong Kong is India’s most important market for the fins.
There have been large seizures undertaken in recent years by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), India’s premier law-enforcement agency to combat smuggling. In 2018 they seized 12,000kg of illegal shark fin exports from one exporter destined for Hong Kong, the Global Impex Trading Company, in Mumbai. This led to multiple arrests of its managers.
India has some marine protected areas and a 61 day seasonal fishing ban for monsoon closures that do reduce shark bycatch pressure. However there is no full ban on shark fishing, sharks are generally legal to catch, and only some species are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. Most sharks can still legally be landed and sold. India has also been developing a dedicated National Plan of Action (NPOA) for Sharks, but it has not been implemented as of yet. There is also no national Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for sharks, which results in fishing pressure being largely unregulated in terms of quantity.
The survival of global shark populations depends heavily on geography. A shark swimming through the waters of The Bahamas or the Marshall Islands is a protected ecological asset. That same shark, moving into the open ocean or the waters of an unmonitored fishing nation, becomes a target for a multi-million dollar global market.
Given the fact that there has been a 71% disappearance of all shark species, and 77% of shark and ray species are now threatened with extinction, the countries of the world who still allow the fishing, finning and global trade of sharks, can be said to be directly responsible for this. The latter 3 countries on this list have examples in the countries who are doing all they can to protect these vulnerable species, whom we as humanity depend upon for our very survival.
“The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. We can only protect it if we act together.”
-António Guterres (UN Secretary-General), said during his UN Ocean Conference speech in Lisbon, Portugal on 27 June 2022.
Author: Maggie Kendall