WildAid is supporting the proposal to include the great white shark in Appendix II of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and will work to persuade government Parties to CITES to support the proposal at the next CITES conference in Bangkok in October 2004. Northwest Atlantic populations of great whites have declined by 79% since 1986 and the species generally is considered to be one of the most vulnerable to overexploitation.

Following the success of our efforts in 2003 to persuade the UN General Assembly to address the problem of shark finning in international waters, WildAid is continuing to work towards a UN resolution prohibiting shark finning in all international waters.  We are also continuing  to persuade more individual nations that it is in their interests to ban finning in their own waters. WildAid will also continue to advocate the implementation of the FAO's International Plan of Action for Sharks.