Palau is to create the world's first "shark sanctuary¹", banning all commercial shark fishing in its waters.

帕劳共和国将建立全球第一个“鲨鱼庇护所”，禁止在其水域进行一切商业化的鲨鱼捕猎。

Hammerheads are among hundreds of species found in Palau's waters

The President of the tiny Pacific republic, Johnson Toribiong, will announce the ban during Friday's session of the UN General Assembly.

With half of the world's oceanic sharks at risk of extinction², conservationists regard the move as "game-changing".

It will protect about 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq miles) of ocean, an area about the size of France.

President Toribiong will also call for a global ban on shark-finning⁴, the practice of removing the fins⁵（鳍，鱼翅） at sea.

Fins are a lucrative⁶（获利的，合算的） commodity（商品，日用品） on the international market where they are bought for use in shark fin³ soup.

As many as 100 million sharks are killed each year around the world.

"These creatures are being slaughtered⁷ and are perhaps at the brink⁸ of extinction unless we take positive action to protect them," said President Toribiong.

"Their physical beauty and strength, in my opinion, reflects the health of the oceans; they stand out," he told BBC News from UN headquarters in New York.

Local benefits

A number of developed nations have implemented⁹（执行，实施） catch limits and restrictions¹⁰ on finning.

Some developing countries such as The Maldives have also taken measures to protect the creatures; but Palau's initiative takes things to a new level, according to conservationists close to the project.

"Palau has recognised how important sharks are to healthy marine¹¹ environments, and they've decided¹² to do what no other nation has done and declare their entire Exclusive Economic Zone a shark sanctuary," said Matt Rand, director of global shark conservation at the Pew Environment Group.

"They are leading the world in shark conservation."

Mr Rand said that about 130 threatened species of shark frequented waters close to Palau and would be likely to gain from the initiative.

Although the country has only 20,000 inhabitants, its territory encompasses¹³ 200 scattered¹⁴ islands, which means that its territorial¹⁵ waters are much bigger than many nations a thousand times more populous（人口多的，人口稠密的）.

Economics is clearly an incentive¹⁶（刺激，鼓励） for the Palau government, which derives¹⁷（得自，起源） most of its income from tourism.

Sharks are themselves a big attraction for scuba-divers, and may also play a role in keeping coral reef ecosystems¹⁸ healthy.

Globally, 21% of shark species whose extinction risk has been assessed（评估） fall into the "threatened" categories, and 18% are "near threatened". For a further 35%, there is not enough data to decide.

Over half of the species that spend most of their time in the upper layers of the ocean, exposed to fishing, are on the threatened list.

Illegal shark-finning is the main cause; but there are legal targeted hunts for fins and meat, and sharks are also caught accidentally on longlines（延绳钓） set for fish such as marlin（马林鱼） and tuna（金枪鱼）.