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Cartilaginous fish have deep evolutionary roots and contain sharks, rays, skates, and chimaera. Many previous studies of these fish have been local or regional, but this report was the first to look at their conservation status on a global scale. Of the 1,041 confirmed species, 181 of them are considered to be threatened. About 23% were deemed “least concern” and have, for the time, stable populations. The team was unable to get sufficient data on all species for several reasons, but not for a lack of trying. In these situations, a classification of “data deficient (DD)” is made. For this study, nearly 47% of the species were deemed DD. Given the data they have, however, it is estimated that over half of these DD species are actually threatened. This would bring the total number of threatened species up to 249; one quarter of all cartilaginous fish species. Nearly 30% are believed to be near threatened, while only 37.4% are believed to be least concerned. The remaining 8.7% did not meet population and geological range metrics necessary to make an educated estimation, and keep the “data deficient” designation.
