Kymberly Escobar
Source: Pew Environment Group
December 22, 2011

"2011 was a banner year for shark conservation.

In just 12 months, leaders from various nations banded together to make protection of these essential creatures a priority. Commercial fishing of these animals is now prohibited in more than 4.7 million square kilometers of ocean (1.8 million square miles) that have been declared shark sanctuaries, an area more than two times the size of Greenland. States around the world-from California in the United States to the remote Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific-have enacted trade bans on sharks and shark products."

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