SYDNEY (January 14, 2026)— Humane World for Animals Australia (previously known as Humane Society International Australia) is proud to have secured protection for two Murray Darling Basin wetland ecosystems under Australia’s new nature laws announced by Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt today. The Lower Murray, including the Coorong at the river mouth, and the Macquarie Marshes have both been listed as Critically Endangered “Threatened...
Since recovery plans, conservation advice and management strategies have been implemented for shark and ray species listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) there have been no measurable improvements in their status.
They all remain threatened with extinction; none have been downgraded since being listed and several have had their threatened status upgraded by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). As a statutory 10-year review of the EPBC Act has recently been announced it is timely to consider how to make the next 10 years a decade in which the status of threatened sharks is dramatically improved.
