Status of sharks and rays in the Mediterranean and how they are being protected Fabrizio Serena IUCN-SSG (Regional Co-chair for the Mediterranean Sea) INTRODUCTION In the Mediterranean, the contribution of elasmobranchs to the total yields of commercial fisheries is low compared with the teleostean fishes. Nevertheless, sharks and rays are an important component of the marine fauna and in general of the ecosystem. Due to their position in the trophic web and to the reproduction strategies of most of the species, they may be sensitive indicators of the evolution of the ecosystem in an area, particularly when important multispecies fisheries do exist as in the Mediterranean Sea. So far, a decreasing trend in the abundance of these species has been documented in different areas from directed fisheries as well as from fisheries where the cartilaginous fishes only constitute a by-catch (Branstetter 1993; Myers et al., 2007; Ferretti et al., 2008). The detected non-sustainability of the exploitation of many