A Report Card for Australia’s Sharks and Rays

Given the global threats to sharks, and concerns about the status of this group of key marine predators, it is important that there is a broad understanding of the status of this group in Australia’s waters. Such a knowledge ensures that environmental managers, policy makers, advocacy groups and the public can act to address any species that are identified as needing improved management. This Report Card of Australia’s Sharks and Rays is designed to fulfil this purpose. It reports the status of all shark, ray and chimaera species known from Australia’s waters to provide a snapshot of the health of Australia’s stocks1. It provides a summary for each of the 331 species assessed and compiles a summary of the outcomes of the assessments into this report card document. The Shark Report Card was first produced in 2019 (Simpfendorfer et al. 2019), but only covered all of Australia’s sharks and a few of the rays. The new version provides comprehensive coverage of all species from all of the groups.