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And 24 of the 31 species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, while three species - oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks and great hammerhead sharks - are considered critically endangered.

When the research team crunched the numbers for the oceanic whitetip shark, a species that was common back in 1970, we “just looked at them in stunned silence,” Dulvy says.

And 24 of the 31 species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, while three species — oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks and great hammerhead sharks — are considered critically endangered.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources says two of the sharks found alive were from the threatened oceanic whitetip shark species and the third was a whitetip reef shark.

Schools of wide-eyed scalloped hammerheads, 40,000-pound whale sharks, reef-patrolling whitetip sharks, more than 40 species in total, many endangered, are found only here.