Fish and Fisheries. 2018;1–15. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/faf | 1 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Received: 29 September 2017 | Accepted: 19 February 2018 DOI: 10.1111/faf.12281 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Examining the impact of CITES listing of sharks and rays in Southeast Asian fisheries K Friedman 1,2 | S Gabriel 3 | O Abe 4 | A Adnan Nuruddin 4 | A Ali 4 | R Bidin Raja Hassan 4 | S X Cadrin 3 | A Cornish 5 | T De Meulenaer 6 | Dharmadi 7 | Fahmi 8 | L Huu Tuan Anh 9 | D Kachelriess 6 | L Kissol Jr. 10 | T Krajangdara 11 | A Rahman Wahab 12 | W Tanoue 13 | C Tharith 14 | F Torres Jr. 15 | W Wanchana 16 | S Win 17 | K Yokawa 18 | Y Ye 1 1 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy 2 University of Western Australia Oceans Institute, Perth, WA, Australia 3 School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, USA 4 Marine Fishery Resources Development and Management Department, SEAFDEC, Terengganu, Malaysia 5 WWF Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 6 CITES Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland 7 Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Jakarta, Indonesia 8 Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia 9 Department of Capture Fisheries and Resources Protection, Hanoi, Viet Nam 10 Department of Fisheries Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 11 Department of Fisheries, Andaman Sea Fisheries Research and Development Center, Phuket, Thailand 12 Department of Fisheries, Putrajaya, Malaysia 13 Fisheries Agency of Japan, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tokyo, Japan 14 Department of Fisheries, Marine Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 15 National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Tuguegarao, Philippines 16 SEAFDEC, Bangkok, Thailand 17 Department of Fisheries, Research and Development Division, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 18 Oceanography and Resources National Research, Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Shizuoka, Japan Correspondence Kim Friedman, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Marine and Inland Fisheries Branch, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy. Email: kim.friedman@fao.org Abstract CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. However, measuring the effectiveness and impacts of these trade regulations for commercially exploited aquatic species re- mains challenging. This study highlights observed or documented changes in elasmo- branch fisheries in eight Southeast Asian countries before and after the listing of sharks and rays in CITES’ Appendix II, and the influence of CITES across five pillars or sectors of a “fishery assessment framework” developed especially for this purpose. Fisheries experts reported change was most common in the “governance” (e.g., pol- icy, regulation and compliance) and “fisher(y)” sectors (e.g., structure and effort) of the assessment framework. The smallest change was recorded in “markets” (e.g.,