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This handout image released by Simon Fraser University/James Cook University on January 16, 2023, shows a pair of shovelnose rays off the coast of Australia. Nearly two thirds of the sharks and rays that live among the world's corals are threatened with extinction, according to new research published on January 16, 2023, in the journal Nature Communications. Coral reefs, which harbour at least a quarter of all marine animals and plants, are gravely menaced by an array of human threats, including overfishing, pollution and climate change. Shark and ray species – from apex predators to filter feeders – play an important role in these delicate ecosystems that “cannot be filled by other species”, said Samantha Sherman, of Simon Fraser University in Canada and the wildlife group TRAFFIC International. (Photo by Colin Simpendorfer/Simon Fraser University/James Cook University/AFP Photo)
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