Introduction: The sharks of Pacific Mexico and their conservation: Why should we care?

Sharks exhibit a broad range of body forms, occupy diverse ecological niches, and are found in every ocean on earth. They have roles as both predator and prey and have an evolutionary history far longer than that of human beings. As long as humans have interacted with the ocean they have interacted with sharks and, as a result, sharks have featured in the mythology, history, and fisheries of diverse cultures around the world. Only in the last 100 years or less, however, have humans begun to study and fully realize the susceptibility of these animals to intensive fishing pressure, ecological degradation, and other anthropogenic factors. This volume highlights the biodiversity and biological attributes of, and conservation efforts targeted at, populations of sharks that reside in the Northeast Pacific Ocean (NEP) bordering the west coast of Mexico. Together with a pair of companion volumes published in 2017 that focused on the NEP adjacent to the United States and Canada, this volume provide readers a detailed backdrop of shark biology and conservation in the Mexican waters of the Northeast Pacific against which to consider their own actions, and those of resource managers, academics, and educators, as they relate to the long-term conservation of sharks and their relatives.