Proposal for Consideration to Include the Family Nautilidae in CITES Appendix II
August 04, 2016
The United States, along with Fiji, India, and Palau, submitted a proposal for consideration at the 17th meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties to include all species of chambered nautiluses in Appendix II of CITES.
International trade in nautilus commodities is demand-driven with a worldwide consumer market, but current management and regulations are not sufficient to protect these slow-growing, late-maturing, low-productivity species from being overharvested for international trade. As range States involved in the harvest or trade of these charismatic species, we believe that CITES regulation is needed to ensure that international demand is not reducing the wild population to a level at which its survival might be threatened by continued harvesting or other influences. An Appendix-II listing will regulate, not ban, the commercial trade in these species and will engage more than 180 countries to ensure that international trade is both legal and sustainable.