Gabon has enacted two new laws to manage and protect sharks and rays in its waters — a major step for a country whose marine habitats shelter some of the ocean’s most threatened species. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) partnered with the Gabonese government over the past decade to identify 69 shark and ray species in Gabon’s waters, laying the scientific groundwork for protections that now carry the force of law.
At a glance
- Shark protection laws: Two new laws regulate shark and ray catch in all Gabonese fisheries and add a wide range of species to Gabon’s list of protected marine animals.
- Shark finning ban: The legislation bans the practice of shark finning and all export of shark and ray products from Gabon, helping meet the country’s obligations under CITES, CMS, and ICCAT.
- Whale shark habitat: Gabon’s waters host species ranging from whale sharks — the world’s largest fish — to scalloped hammerheads, giant manta rays, and the Critically Endangered African wedgefish.
What the new laws do
The first law regulates shark and ray catch across all of Gabon’s fisheries. Special authorization is now required to target sharks and rays, and the most vulnerable species are fully protected. Sharks must be landed whole, preventing the removal of fins at sea — a practice that has driven population collapses across the tropics.
The second law expands Gabon’s list of protected marine species, offering two tiers of coverage. The strongest protection applies to manta and mobula rays, whale sharks, all sawfish and angel shark species in Gabonese waters, and the Critically Endangered African wedgefish. When any of these species are caught incidentally, they must be released immediately. Fishing techniques must also be adapted to keep bycatch of these animals below 1% of total catch.
A second tier of partial protection covers pelagic sharks and other species that cannot be targeted by industrial or artisanal fisheries. Critically Endangered and Endangered species in this group — including thresher sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerheads, and giant guitarfish — are subject to zero quotas until their populations stabilize and recover.
Why Gabon’s waters matter
Gabon’s coastline spans a mosaic of habitats that supports remarkable marine diversity. Nursery grounds for scalloped hammerheads sit just offshore. Giant guitarfish move through coastal shallows. Whale sharks cruise open water. This variety makes Gabon one of the more significant places on the continent for ocean and marine protection efforts.
Sharks grow slowly and reproduce at low rates, making them especially vulnerable when fisheries pressure goes unmanaged. They also serve as top, sometimes apex, predators in marine ecosystems — their removal reshapes food webs in ways that affect everything below them.
The urgency is real. Both species of sawfish once found in Gabon’s waters have not been recorded there since the 1990s C.E. The new laws come too late for them, but advocates hope the protections arrive in time for the species that remain.
Small-scale fisheries and community fishing
The laws do not cut off all access. Smaller-bodied coastal species — such as milk sharks — may still be caught in artisanal fisheries because of their importance to local food security. Those fisheries will now operate under monitoring and regulation developed in consultation with coastal communities and the government.
WCS staff note that the approach reflects the careful balance needed when managing any shark or ray fishery: protective enough to prevent collapse, flexible enough to support the people who depend on the sea for protein and income.
A model for the Gulf of Guinea
WCS and Gabonese officials see the potential to extend these measures to neighboring countries in the southern Gulf of Guinea, where similar shark and ray species cross shared waters. Gabon’s framework — built on a decade of species surveys and close collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society — offers a replicable template.
The laws also align Gabon with its international commitments under CITES, the Convention on Migratory Species, and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Many of the species now protected in Gabon are listed under those agreements, and domestic law has often lagged behind those commitments.
The initiative is part of a broader global push to save sharks and rays that launched on World Ocean Day, drawing attention to species whose declines have accelerated faster than most fisheries policy has kept pace with.
Enforcement and long-term funding remain open questions. The government will need sustained support to implement these new rules and adapt them as population data improves — and the work of monitoring compliance in Gabon’s vast coastal waters has only just begun.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Samoa protects 30% of its ocean with new marine protected areas
- Papua New Guinea establishes the Western Manus Marine Protected Area
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
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