Arctic TrackerUniversity of Akureyri · UNAK

All species / Alopias vulpinus

Alopias vulpinus

Common Thresher Shark

Alopias vulpinus, Common Thresher Shark
(c) charm, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · via inaturalist, stored and served from this site. These bytes do not match the digest in the deposit: the file was replaced with the same photograph at full resolution and the record was not updated. Checked against iNaturalist photo 23056144.
Red List, global
VU
Vulnerable, 2022
First CITES listing
II
Appendix II, 2017
CITES trade records
97
2017–2023 · exporter-reported
Unit dimensions
2
reported separately, never summed
NAMMCO catch entries
none
NAMMCO reports a subset of marine mammals
Seizure records
1
reported taxon matches

One of 43: each square a species, coloured by its latest global Red List category, this one ringed. Common Thresher Shark is among the sharks.

In summary derived

Alopias vulpinus, Common Thresher Shark, is placed in family Alopiidae, order Lamniformes, class Chondrichthyes. The earliest CITES listing row the corpus holds for it is Appendix II, dated 2017. The corpus records 1 dated listing row in total.

Its latest global Red List assessment is Vulnerable, published 2022. It carries 6 earlier global assessments on the current scale.

The corpus holds 97 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 2017 to 2023, reported across 2 unit dimensions. The most frequently recorded term is fins: 73 records across 2 unit dimensions, of which 62 are measured in kg. The corpus holds no NAMMCO catch records for it. 1 seizure record is attributed to it, being the one whose reported taxon matches the species.

Composed from 16 corpus fields, by template, with no model
  • species.class
  • species.family
  • species.order_name
  • species_catch.catch_total
  • species_iucn.is_global
  • species_iucn.status
  • species_iucn.year_published
  • species_listing.appendix
  • species_listing.listing_date
  • species_seizure.*
  • species_trade.dimension
  • species_trade.first_year
  • species_trade.last_year
  • species_trade.record_count
  • species_trade.reporter_type
  • species_trade.term

Each sentence is generated from the columns above and nothing else. The same corpus produces the same text every time. Where a field is absent the sentence is omitted rather than hedged.

Overview curated

Taxonomy entered by a named curator and versioned in the repository.

Class
Chondrichthyes
Order
Lamniformes
Family
Alopiidae
First CITES listing
2017
Global Red List status
VUVulnerable, assessed 2022
This taxonomy differs from the name CITES reports
  • Class: CITES reports Elasmobranchii; this site uses Chondrichthyes. CITES reports the subclass Elasmobranchii in its class field; Chondrichthyes is the class rank.
Content withheld pending expert review

7 narrative sections for this species were machine-drafted and are not shown. No subject expert has reviewed and signed them.

Trade derived

CITES Trade Database v2025.1, extracted 13 June 2025.

There is no single trade total

Quantities are reported per unit dimension, per traded term, and per reporting side. These are not additive: kilograms and individual animals have no common unit, a live animal is not a carving, and an importer report and an exporter report are two accounts of one shipment rather than two shipments.

Figures below are exporter-reported.

mass in kg
82
count in specimens
15

Records per dimension. Not additive across units.

Trade over time

listed 20172017: 4 records2018: 36 records2019: 8 records2020: 7 records2021: 21 records2022: 11 records2023: 10 records2020
Peak 36 records in 2018. Trade records per year, exporter-reported, every term and unit counted as records, not quantities.
listed 20172017: 2,961.38 kg2018: 57,862.48 kg2019: 1,698.67 kg2020: 4,068.68 kg2021: 9,651.08 kg2022: 377 kg2023: 173 kg2020
Peak 57,862.48 kg in 2018. Quantity of fins, the term with most records (62), in kg, exporter-reported. Other terms are in the tables below, each in its own unit.

mass measured in kg

82 of 97 records carry a quantity in kg.

Bars count trade records per term, not kg, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in kg.
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
fins76,792.19 kg612017–2023W
fin (dried)5,155.8 kg102022–2023W
derivatives45.14 kg62017–2018O
meat10,791.07 kg32022W
fins0.1 kg12018O
bodies775 kg12019W

count measured in specimens

15 of 97 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.

Bars count trade records per term, not specimens, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in specimens.
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
fins18 specimens92018–2019O
specimens52 specimens32018–2023W
fins4 specimens22017–2018W
skeletons1 specimen12018W

CITES listings curated

CoP decisions, cross-checked against the appendix reported on trade records.

DateAppendixAnnotationStatus
2017-10-04II[GENUS listing Alopias spp.] Listing agreed at CoP17 in October 2016 with entry into effect delayed by 12 months.first listing

Convention on Migratory Species

Listed under CMS: Appendix II. Also covered by Sharks, which are separate instruments with their own annexes.

IUCN Red List derived

Assessment history. Scope is always stated: a regional assessment is not the species status.

LCNTVUENCR2000201020222009: Vulnerable (global)2015: Endangered (global)2016: Endangered (global)2019: Vulnerable (global)2022: Vulnerable (global)?2000: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2002: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk orderLCNTVUENCR2000201020222009: Vulnerable (global)2015: Endangered (global)2016: Endangered (global)2019: Vulnerable (global)2022: Vulnerable (global)?2000: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2002: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order
  • published global assessment
  • not on this scale (below the axis)
Vertical position is the IUCN risk order, not a measured quantity: the gaps between categories are equal on the page and not in nature. Anything that is not one of the nine modern categories carries no position on that order — Data Deficient, a superseded category, or a record that no assessment was made — so it sits below the axis and the line breaks across it rather than joining through. Each point names which it is.

Category movement since listing: stable. Baseline VU in 2019, latest VU in 2022, an observed window of 3 years. This is the direction of change between two Red List categories. It is not a status trajectory and it is not an effectiveness result, because no genuine-change flag exists in the source and no counterfactual is available. How this is defined

YearCategoryMeaningScopeStatus
2022VUVulnerableGlobalcurrent for this scope
2019VUVulnerableGlobal
2016ENEndangeredGlobal
2015ENEndangeredGlobal
2009VUVulnerableGlobal
2002DDData DeficientGlobal
2000DDData DeficientGlobal

Reported catch derived

NAMMCO catch exports dated 11 June 2025. A reported zero is stored as zero, distinct from an unknown.

No NAMMCO catch records for this species. NAMMCO reports on a subset of marine mammals, so an absence here is expected for most species and does not mean no catch occurred.

Illegal trade seizures derived

Seizure records whose reported taxon resolves to this species.

What the seizure source records

1 seizure record names this species. Matching is on the taxon the source reported, case aside, and each record below shows the reported name, so a match that is not literal can be seen for what it is. Across the whole compilation, 225 of 919 rows match one of the 43 species and the rest name other taxa.

Quantities are unitless. The source gives no date or place, so the table shows the product and the reported taxon.

ProductReported as
finAlopias vulpinus

References withheld

Machine-proposed bindings. Shown only where an expert has signed the profile and the binding is live.

No references are recorded for this species: none is shown, and none was machine-proposed for review.

Timeline curated

Curated events. Those with no corroborating table in this database are marked.

DateEventTypeCorroboration
2022IUCN Red List Assessment (2022)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2019IUCN Red List Assessment (2019)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2017-10-04Listed in CITES Appendix IIcites_listingchecked against cites_listings
2016IUCN Red List Assessment (2016)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2015IUCN Red List Assessment (2015)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2009IUCN Red List Assessment (2009)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2002IUCN Red List Assessment (2002)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2000IUCN Red List Assessment (2000)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments