Body Launches New Website On Sharks, Manta Rays

The Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) secretariat has launched a web section on sharks and manta rays.
This is contained in a statement issued from the CITES headquarters in Geneva and made available to The Tide online in Abuja, recently.
The statement said that the website was launched to assist the 179 parties to the Convention in putting in place effective measures to control international trade in the newly listed species.
“Parties now have less than 10 months before they must start regulating international trade in the oceanic animals.
“The regulations will enter into force on 14 September, 2014”.
The statement said that the new section could be accessed at www.cites.org/eng/prog/shark.
It said that this section would facilitate access to background information, with links to useful tools and materials and lists of related meetings and events.
The statement quoted the CITES Secretary-General, Mr John Scanlon, as saying: “gaining easy access to the best available data and information from a single platform, will help ensure the harmonious implementation of the shark and ray listings.
“ We hope that this new tool will be valuable to CITES Parties and to everyone else who is supporting this critical effort.”
The statement further said that in response to a request made earlier by some parties, the secretariat had received information on capacity building activities.
In addition, it said that the CITES Secretariat welcomed inputs on the content and structure of the sharks and rays web section so that it could be continuously improved to better serve parties and stakeholders.
The Tide source reports that Nigeria was among the first countries to ratify CITES in 1976. It domesticated the convention by promulgating the “Endangered Species (Control of Trade and Traffic) Act in 1985.