Rapid Assessment Toolkit for Sharks and Rays

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WWF and the Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries & Aquaculture (CSTFA) at James Cook University have developed the first Rapid Assessment Toolkit focused on sharks and rays. The Toolkit consists of practical and simple step-by-step guidelines for collecting basic information using six complimentary tools.

Nearly twenty years after the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks was launched, many shark-fishing nations still do not have National Plans of Action, while the conservation status of many species cannot be determined. In many cases, a lack of basic information continues to hinder better management.

The Rapid Assessment Toolkit for Sharks and Rays (the Toolkit) is aimed primarily at countries with insufficient species-specific data to allow science-based management. Such nations may have limited capacity and resources to gather data that could help them accurately determine the true states of their coastal environments, a situation common among marine-based communities. The Toolkit is designed to help remedy the dearth of basic information on movements, biodiversity and catch trends in many countries in Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America.