MALAYSIA ranks 15th among the world’s top 20 shark catching nations. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), we provide 2.95% of the world’s total shark and ray catch.
At least one endangered shark species – the scalloped hammerhead – ranks among the top 10 most commonly taken shark species in Malaysian waters, according to a recent report by World Wide Fund for Nature and the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Many others on that list are close to qualifying, or likely to qualify, for a “threatened” category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List in the near future. They include the spadenose shark, brown-banded bamboo shark, spot-tail shark, Indonesian bamboo shark, blackspot shark, milk shark, graceful shark, sicklefin weasel shark and grey bamboo shark.