The Shark Conservation Fund (SCF) is a collaboration of philanthropists dedicated to solving the global shark and ray crisis. Our goal is to halt the overexploitation of the world’s sharks and rays, prevent extinctions, reverse population declines, and restore imperiled species through strategic and catalytic grantmaking.
The plight of sharks and rays is an international crisis. Scientists estimate that more than 100 million sharks are killed every year and that nearly a quarter of all shark and ray species are facing extinction, placing them among the most threatened vertebrates on the planet. As these predators play critical ecological, cultural, and economic roles in our oceans and coastal communities, their declining numbers are a growing threat to the health of the ocean and jeopardize the livelihoods and food security of millions of people around the world.
The current scale of conservation efforts does not match this level of crisis. Major investments are urgently needed worldwide in policy development, outreach and advocacy, conservation science, communications and media, capacity building, and long-term monitoring. It is vital that we step up action to save our sharks and rays.
SCF believes that we need a globally coordinated conservation strategy to effectively tackle the current crisis and affect real change in protecting shark and ray populations. We are working at the local, national, and international levels, investing strategically in projects that can turn the tide for imperiled sharks and rays around the world.