Sharks are disappearing from the world’s oceans at an alarming clip, but a new group is teaming up with aquariums to repopulate the oceans with endangered shark species.
Called ReShark, the organization has teamed up with 44 aquariums in 15 countries. The process begins when aquariums harvest eggs from their captive endangered species. The eggs are then flown to Indonesia, where they are hatched in enclosures. The sharks are nurtured to a certain size, and then released into the wild.
Two 15-week-old zebra sharks were recently released into Indonesian waters. The goal is to release at least 500 zebra sharks to create a self-sustaining wild population. Zebra sharks are on the verge of extinction, mostly due to overharvesting. They are often caught as bycatch but are also targeted for their fins and oily meat.
Scientists have previously reintroduced animals on land, but doing it with sharks, whose numbers are rapidly being decimated, is new.
ReShark is already assessing plans to apply the same approach to other shark and even ray species in different parts of the world.
You can read more about it in this National Geographic story.
