National Marine Ecosystem Diagnostic Analysis (MEDA)- Madagascar

Madagascar has valuable living marine resources. Among the 123 species of sharks and rays present in Madagascar, 31 are classified by IUCN as threatened, 1 is endangered (the skate Rostroraja alba), 17 are vulnerable (the whale shark and endemic skate Dipturus crosnieri) and 10 are near threatened. All three species of sawfishes are classified as “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List and in Appendix I of CITES. Today, sawfishes are very rare, probably due to shrimp trawling, use of gill nets across rivers and installation of fish barriers in estuaries. Approximately 50 species of sharks and rays of neritic and oceanic deep waters of Madagascar are affected by the industrial tuna fishery (longline and seine fishing), industrial fisheries, industrial shrimp fishery, artisanal and traditional fisheries. Due to their slow reproductive rates, Chondrichthyes are very vulnerable to overexploitation.