Fishing limits urged to save sharks

Shark fins can fetch up to $564 per kilo

March 27, 1998
Web posted at: 8:24 p.m. EST (0124 GMT)

By Environmental News Network staff

Unless governments agree to new limits on shark fishing, the kingly marine species faces imminent commercial extinction, the World Wildlife Fund said Thursday.

The WWF warning accompanies a report released by the WWF's wildlife trade monitoring program, TRAFFIC, which says that three North American countries lack adequate monitoring and management measures for exploited species of sharks.

Shark experts from around the world will gather in Tokyo in late April at a meeting of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to discuss international guidelines and a plan of action for the conservation and management of sharks. Over the past two decades shark populations have declined by as much as 80 percent.

"The shark is the poster child of mismanaged fisheries," said Andrea Gaski, TRAFFIC director of research. "Without global implementation of basic shark fisheries management and improved research and data collection, we are putting sharks on the fast track to extinction and playing Russian roulette with the ecological balance of the marine world."

Sharks have a long lifespan and low reproductive rate, which make them susceptible to overfishing. Many sharks do not reach sexual maturity until the age of 25 and produce only a few offspring.

As a result, sharks are unable to rebound when populations are depleted by overfishing, and as top predators, their extinction could have a major impact on marine ecosystems.

Historically, most sharks were caught as bycatch and their dead bodies dumped back into the ocean as waste. According to the TRAFFIC report, each year 24,000 metric tons of sharks are discarded when caught.

Today, sharks continue to be discarded as bycatch, however, as popular fish such as tuna and swordfish become increasingly depleted, restricted, or seasonally unavailable, fishermen are turning to sharks as an alternative.

Shark fin, meat, liver and other parts are sold for food or as ingredients in health and beauty aids. Shark fins are the most popular, fetching up to $564 per kilo.

More than 125 countries participate in the shark trade. The United States and Mexico alone landed more than 100,000 metric tons of shark in 1994 and are considered two of the top shark fishing nations in the world.

"Sharks are the canary in the coal mine for world fisheries," said Simon Burns, director of WWF's Fish Conservation Program. "Without stronger laws at the national, regional, and international levels, we are truly tempting fate. And without monitoring mechanisms in most parts of the world there is no way to evaluate the damage we are inflicting on shark populations until it becomes too late."

Among the recommendations the WWF will make to the FAO and member countries when they meet next month is the elimination of wasteful bycatch from commercial fisheries by improving fishing techniques and gear types.

Copyright 1998, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

---

Related ENN Stories:

• Court upholds cut in U.S. shark quota
  
• Management regimes necessary for shark survival, says WWF
  
• The Gulf of Mexico: A shark nursery?
  

Related sites:

• TRAFFIC
  
• World Wildlife Fund
  

---

 

---

Sound off on our message boards & chat