The Maldives, celebrated globally for its pristine marine biodiversity and home to the only national level shark sanctuary in the Indian Ocean, is facing a major policy reversal that has triggered widespread domestic and international debate.

The government’s decision to reopen the gulper shark (Centrophorus) fishery and legalize deep-water vertical longlining threatens to violently shake the country’s long-standing commitment to shark conservation.

This pivot by the administration of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu sidesteps a 15-year total moratorium on shark fishing. It directly disregards the warnings of more than 50 local and international scientists, civil society organizations, and conservation bodies. Most critically, it targets a slow-growing, deep-sea species explicitly listed as Endangered and Critically Endangered across various geographies on the IUCN Red List.

From both a scientific and policy standpoint, this move contradicts the precautionary approach legally required under the Maldives Fisheries Act. It severely undermines a generation of eco-leadership as a Shark Sanctuary nation; a status that has made the Maldives a global icon for progressive ocean governance.

To understand why a country synonymous with luxury marine tourism would target an obscure creature of the deep, one must venture deep below the sunlit coral reefs that draw millions of holidaymakers. There, in the ink-black depths of the outer atoll slopes, lives the gulper shark.

Unlike the sleek reef sharks that entertain divers in shallow channels, gulper sharks are specialized survivalists. They are heavily targeted for one specific biological asset: their massive, oil-rich livers. This liver oil contains high concentrations of squalene, an organic compound highly prized in international cosmetics, luxury skin creams, and certain pharmaceutical applications.

Because squalene from deep-sea sharks is highly sought after on the global market, it promises swift returns. But biologists warn that treating these deep-water ecosystems as an economic extraction zone is an ecological gamble with a pre-written ending.

The fundamental problem with the gulper shark is its agonizingly slow reproductive cycle. It takes more than two decades for a female gulper shark to reach maturity. When she finally does reproduce, her gestation period is among the longest of any animal on Earth, resulting in a litter of just one or two pups every few years.

Maldives has already played this high-stakes game- and lost. During a previous unregulated period in the late 1980s and 1990s, deep-sea shark populations in Maldivian waters collapsed abruptly. Historical research shows that between 1982 and 2002, the country's gulper shark population plummeted by an astronomical 97 percent due to targeted liver-oil fishing.

The species has not recovered from the initial decline. Opening a commercial infrastructure under these conditions presents a significant risk to an already depleted and vulnerable population. 

Despite this grim biological reality and a national survey conducted by ocean conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation, in partnership with Maldives Resilient Reefs and the Maldivian Miyaru Shark Programme, indicated that 77 percent of Maldivian citizens oppose reopening the shark fishery, the Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Resources officially launched the Gulper Shark Fisheries Planning and Distribution Regulations.

The government defends the move as a highly managed, strictly monitored economic diversification project. Under the new framework, the state aims to tightly regulate the trade through a closed licensing and landing structure:

While the administration touts these measures as a "data-driven approach to sustainable marine resource management," conservationists view the regulations as a logistical paper shield. The Maldives’ vast territorial waters spanning over 900,000 square kilometers of open ocean are difficult to police.

Furthermore, the authorization of deep-water vertical longlining presents an immediate threat of bycatch. Other highly endangered deep-water species, alongside oceanic sharks that sustain the nation's multi-million-dollar dive tourism industry, risk being hooked in the dark.

The implementation of the fishery has not gone uncontested. It has triggered an unprecedented constitutional showdown spearheaded by local environmental advocates and civil society groups.

According to legal and campaign records maintained by the independent platform Miveshi, public interest advocates Humaida Abdul Ghafoor and Mohamed Seeneen filed a landmark constitutional lawsuit against the Government of Maldives in late 2025. 

The petition seeks to entirely nullify the Gulper Shark Fishery Plan and its associated regulations on the grounds that it directly violates the environmental protections enshrined in the Maldivian Constitution and breaches the country's statutory duties under the Maldives Fisheries Act.

The legal journey through the judiciary has exposed the systemic challenges facing environmental litigation in the Maldives:

Activists file a formal public-interest constitutional case in the High Court of Maldives to strike down the new regulations.

The High Court Registrar rejects the petition on procedural grounds, prompting advocates to hold an emergency press briefing to raise public awareness.

A three-judge panel upholds the Registrar's rejection, asserting that certain broad constitutional matters involving generalized "public interest" fall outside the court's immediate jurisdiction.

The legal team heavily refines the text to address the jurisdictional technicalities and resubmits the revised constitutional challenge.

The High Court Registrar rejects the modified filing a second time. On April 23, 2026, a second formal Request for Review was filed. keeping the legal battle actively alive.

The High Court bench ruled that the initial rejection by the Registrar was incorrect and held that the petition sufficiently explained why the gulper shark fishing regulation allegedly contravenes Article 22 of the Constitution and should therefore be accepted for consideration. 

This ongoing game of judicial ping-pong highlights a deep structural frustration within Maldivian civil society. While the state moves forward with processing licenses and establishing oversight committees, the legal mechanism to challenge ecological destruction remains tied up in institutional bureaucracy.

The economic irony of the gulper shark pivot is sharpest when compared with the Maldives' primary economic engine- luxury tourism. Statistics compiled by the Blue Marine Foundation and the Miyaru Programme indicate that live shark encounters generate more than USD 65 million annually for the Maldivian economy through dive excursions, resort bookings, and local guesthouse employment.

Sharks are worth infinitely more alive to local communities than dead, exported as barrels of cosmetic raw ingredients. By dismantling its hard-won "shark sanctuary" status, Maldives risks fracturing its green credentials on the international stage. It faces potential reputational damage that could influence eco-conscious travelers to choose alternative destinations.

The global regulatory community has already begun tightening the vice around this new fishery. Shortly after the Maldives announced its intention to lift the ban, gulper sharks were officially added to Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) during the CoP20 meeting in November 2025.

This means that the Maldivian government cannot simply ship shark oil to overseas buyers unchecked. The state is now legally mandated to provide a rigorous scientific document known as a Non-Detriment Finding (NDF). This document must prove, via empirical data, that commercial harvesting will not cause the species to decline toward extinction.

Given that the Maldives currently lacks comprehensive, baseline deep-sea population data, producing a legally viable NDF will be exceptionally difficult. The country risks setting up an expensive industrial fishing infrastructure that it cannot legally export products from without violating international treaty law.

Ultimately, the reopening of the gulper shark fishery reflects a classic short-term political calculation triumphing over long-term ecological and economic sustainability. 

Reversing a 15-year total ban on shark fishing to permit deep-sea resource extraction marks a significant shift in the nation's environmental policy direction. As this legal challenge proceeds through the High Court, the Maldives faces a critical juncture that will define its future trajectory in marine resource management and its standing in global ocean conservation.