The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) this week decided not to create any new international trade restrictions to protect five endangered shark species, all of which are highly prized for their use in the Chinese delicacy known as shark fin soup, or as I call it "extinction in a bowl."

Shark fin soup is particularly unappetizing dish to conservationists, as shark "finning" remains one of the most controversial hunting or fishing activities in the world. Sharks are caught, their fins are chopped off, and the bodies (which are not prized) are dumped back into the ocean—often alive, where they suffer a horrible death.

The sharks that were denied protection include three endangered hammerhead sharks (scalloped, great and smooth), the oceanic whitetip and the spiny dogfish. The CITES proposal would have added the species to CITES' Appendix II, which places very strict import and export restrictions on species which would be threatened with extinction if trade were not strongly controlled.

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The member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at their meeting in Doha, Qatar, this week passed resolutions to aid tigers, elephants and rhinos, three of the species most victimized by the illegal wildlife trade.

Although none of the resolutions provide any new protections, they certainly can't hurt.

For tigers the CITES member nations unanimously agreed to improve law enforcement, increase regional cooperation between the countries where tigers still live, improve population and crime data reporting, and create a tiger trade database that could be analyzed to develop anti-poaching strategies. How any of that would be achieved wasn't made clear.

CITES banned international trade in tigers back in 1975. A resolution on the table to further limit domestic trade (within the borders of an individual country) was on the agenda for this week's meeting, but did not pass. Existing provisions against tiger farms, like those found in China, were not weakened.

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The triennial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is still underway in Doha, Qatar, this week, but so far news coming out of the conference is a mixed bag. Some trees have been protected, tigers gained a few friends, and a rare salamander got some attention, but all hopes to save the critically endangered bluefin tuna were sunk in a secret ballot that put commerce ahead of science and conservation.

As I've written here before, populations of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) have dropped 97 percent since 1960, but the tasty fish remains in high demand in Japan, where sushi bars are willing to pay up to $100,000 or more per fish. A possible CITES ban on bluefin tuna—supported by the U.S. and 27 European Union nations)—has been in the works for months. Japan, meanwhile, had already announced that it would not comply with such a ban if it were enacted.

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With fewer places left to breed and live, European butterflies, beetles, dragonflies and damselflies are dying in droves, according to the latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The Red List update finds that 9 percent of Europe's butterflies, 11 percent of its saproxylic beetles and 14 percent of dragonflies are threatened with extinction, at least within the geographic confines of the European Union (E.U.). Some of these species exist on more than one continent, whereas others have more limited habitats and thereby are more vulnerable to extinction.

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Mammals, birds and fish living in the High Arctic experienced an average 26 percent drop in their populations between 1970 and 2004 due to the loss of sea ice, according to a new report from The Arctic Species Trend Index, "Tracking Trends in Arctic Wildlife."

The 2010 report, commissioned and coordinated by the Whitehorse, Yukon–based Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), was presented Wednesday at the State of the Arctic Conference in Miami. It covers 965 populations of 365 species, representing 35 percent of all known vertebrate species found in the Arctic.

The Arctic region is broken into three floristic zones (High, Low and Sub Arctic), referring to the amount of plant life that exists within the regions' boundaries.

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Nearly 70 percent of the world's Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) have been killed in the past 10 years by an infectious cancer called devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). So far, no cure has been found, and the disease has spread to almost every corner of the remote island off the southeastern coast of Australia, the only place on Earth where they live in the wild.

But now a colony of devils living near Cradle Mountain in northwestern Tasmania has displayed immunity against DFTD, and scientists say this could be the hope the species needs.

The northwestern population, says lead researcher Katherine Belov of the University of Sydney, is genetically distinct from the eastern devils. So far, the former have not contracted DFTD.

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North American bird species are "facing a new threat—climate change—that could dramatically alter their habitat and food supply, and push many species towards extinction," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Thursday when he announced the new report, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change."

According to the report, climate changes will have "an increasingly disruptive effect on bird species in all habitats." Oceanic migratory species and birds living in Hawaii will face the greatest threats, according to the report.
The report was a collaborative effort between the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative, federal and state wildlife agencies, and organizations including the American Bird Conservancy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Klamath Bird Observatory, National Audubon Society, and The Nature Conservancy.

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For the first time in U.K. history, an alien species (meaning one that is not native to the area) will be let loose in the kingdom to combat the growth of another species—also introduced.

Millions of sap-sucking psyllids (Aphalara itadori) will be imported into the U.K. to fight the Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica), an invasive species first introduced during Victorian times that has since become an ecosystem-choking threat. Alien species are considered "invasive" once they become difficult to control and squeeze out native species.

According to a report in Britain's Daily Mail, knotweed "grows through concrete and asphalt, damages buildings and walls, weakens flood defenses, and crowds out other plants." The U.K. spends $2.4 billion annually fighting the plant.

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Nine months after it created its first list of protected endangered species, the government has added 15 more to the list, including what has been billed as "the world's least-known bird."

The bird, the large-billed reed warbler (Acrocephalus orinus), had only been observed in nature twice—once back in 1867—before its nesting habitat was found in Afghanistan in 2006.

Afghan law automatically protects any new species discovered within its borders.

The 15 newly protected species were evaluated by the new Afghanistan Wildlife Executive Committee, which includes among its advisors the Bronx, N.Y.–based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In a prepared statement Peter Zahler, deputy director of WCS's Asia Program, praised the additions to the list: "By formally protecting the large-billed reed warbler as well as other wildlife, Afghanistan's National Environment[al] Protection Agency has shown a strong commitment to conserving its natural heritage—even during these challenging times."

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The yellow-spotted bell frog (Litoria castanea), last observed in 1970s, has long been thought to be extinct in the wild. Scientists believed it was probably a victim of the deadly chytrid fungus that has devastated amphibian populations around the world.

But last year, Luke Pearce, a fisheries conservation officer in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), thought he saw a yellow-spotted bell frog in an isolated stream where he was looking for another endangered species. He returned a year later with herpetologist David Hunter of the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water. Together, they found a population of around 100 adult frogs.

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