13 December 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk
The Cook Islands has approved a shark sanctuary in its waters, making for the largest such sanctuary in the world.
The South Pacific island chain declared a 1.9 million-sq-km sanctuary, contiguous with one established last week by neighbouring French Polynesia.
That sees a ban on shark fishing and possession or sale of shark products in an area now totalling 6.7 million sq km – nearly the size of Australia.
As top predators, overfishing of sharks disrupts complex oceanic food webs.
And about a third of ocean-going sharks appear on the internationally-recognised Red List of Threatened Species.
"We are proud as Cook Islanders to provide our entire exclusive economic zone… as a shark sanctuary," said Teina Bishop, Cook Islands minister of marine resources.
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20709853