Illegal fishing and the rising market for shark meat are putting over 80 species of sharks and rays in the Mediterranean Sea at serious risk.

New research has found more than 200 measures to protect sharks and rays across the 22 coastal states of the Mediterranean region. However, while elasmobranchs have made it onto many policy agendas, the study found considerable differences in how effectively any legislation was being monitored with no single source for tracking progress in the conservation and management of sharks at national levels.