Maldives Shark Sanctuary Endangered

Government of Maldives plans to re-open gulper shark fishery

Significant Facts

The Maldives was the only shark sanctuary in the Indian Ocean region. It was one of just 17 shark sanctuaries globally. An estimated “1.4 million tons, or 100 million shark individuals are killed per year” (Worm et al, 2013), endangering shark populations globally.
On 31 October 2025, the Government of Maldives made the decision to re-open the country to the fishery of globally endangered gulper sharks in the country.
This decision effectively ends the Maldives’ 15 year status as a shark sanctuary since 2010.

• 2025 – August 26, Government of Maldives declared its intention to re-open gulper shark fishery in Maldives, specifically for the alleged benefit of the Kulhudhuffushi community. Shark fishery in Kulhudhuffushi wound down circa 2008, due to the decline of the fishery as a result of shark population collapse.
• 2022 – Maldives passes national CITES Act (Law No. 13/2022)
• 2021 – March, political rhetoric about re-opening shark fishery was met with significant concern from a broad spectrum of stakeholders including CSOs, businesses and the tourism sector
• 2021 – January – reports that Maldives customs seized 429kg of shark fins, indicating the significant vulnerability of the protection mechanisms for the sanctuary
• 2013 – Maldives became a State Party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
• 2011 – ban on shark products imposed. Study stated : “The various shark stocks that supported the Kulhudhuffushi shark fishery were sequentially overfished. Reef sharks in the northern atolls had been grossly overfished by the 1980s. Nearshore pelagic sharks around the northern atolls had been overfished by the 1990s. Offshore oceanic sharks had been declining in abundance for some years before the fishery closed in 2010.” (Anderson et al, 2011)
• 2010 – Maldives imposes total ban on shark fishery in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), making its territory a sanctuary for all sharks. Reasons include overwhelming challenges and inability to implement management plans to regulate and monitor the fishery.
• 2009 – Maldives imposes fishing ban on reef sharks
• 2004 – country review of fishery observes ‘no fishery is covered by a management plan’
• 1998 – September 8, the Maldives brought in a 10 year ban (or moratorium) on shark fishery in 7 designated atolls, within 12 miles of the coast
• 1993 – study calculated that ‘one Grey Reef Shark may be worth 100 times more alive at a dive site than dead on a fishing boat’, highlighting the significant discrepancy in the value of a shark to the national economy alive, than dead.
  1970s – since commercial shark fishery began in Maldives, between 1980-2002, gulper shark population declined by 97%
  

Information sources:

• Boris Worm et al, ‘Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks’, Marine Policy, 40 (2013)
• Fathimath Shahunaz, ‘Customs investigate attempt to export shark fins’, The Edition, 4 January 2021
• Khadeeja Ali (Senior Research Officer), ‘Status of the Shark Fishery Ban in the Maldives and the Implementation of the National Plan of Action on Sharks’, Marine Research Centre, Maldives (2014)
• M Shiham Adam, Country Review: Maldives, Marine Research Centre (2004)
• R C Anderson, M Shiham Adam and M R Saleem, ‘Shark Longline Fishery in the Northern Maldives’ (2011)
• R C Anderson and H Ahmed, ‘The Shark Fisheries of the Maldives’, Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture (Maldives) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN), 1993