Matt Rand, director of the Pew Environment Group’s Global Shark Conservation Campaign, said that the declaration that Palau will become the world’s first international shark sanctuary helps fill a dire need to save sharks. He responded to the United Nations General Assembly address by Johnson Toribiong, president of the Pacific island country of Palau.
According to Rand sharks have inhabited our planet for more than 400 million years, but today more than one third of the world’s shark species are threatened or near threatened with extinction. In this sanctuary sharks will be safe from all commercial fishing in Palau’s waters – an area about the size of Texas.
It is informed that small island nations have a unique resource that they need to maintain and nurture: the ocean and the life within it. Short term economic needs have pressured some island nations to over-exploit this resource. Palau, however, has decided to take the path of ocean stewardship, building on the desire of visitors to see the wonderful marine environment that it has preserved.
