Sharks have roamed our seas since before the time of dinosaurs, but their long reign at the top of the ocean food chain may be ending. Roughly 73 million sharks are killed by fishing industries every year.
One of the biggest impacts on shark populations is the practice of shark-finning – catching a shark, slicing off its fins and then discarding the body at sea. The fins are valued for the Asian delicacy “shark fin soup.” Shark meat, on the other hand, has little value in most seafood markets.
Numerous scientific studies have documented huge declines in shark populations. Some shark populations, such as scalloped hammerheads and dusky sharks along the eastern U.S. coast, have plummeted by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s.
Protecting Sharks in the United States
Pew is calling for passage of the U.S. Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (S 850 / HR 81), which would completely prohibit the removal of shark fins at sea, close loopholes in the current finning law, and promote shark conservation in other countries. HR 81, introduced by Representative Madeline Bordallo (Guam), passed the House of Representatives unanimously in March 2009. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced the Senate version in April 2009.
Ask your senator to support the Shark Conservation Act.
Protecting Sharks on the High Seas
Sharks caught in high-seas fisheries are among the oceans’ most vulnerable animals. Their low reproductive rates make them particularly susceptible to overfishing in the face of increased demand for shark products. More than half of the shark species taken in high-seas fisheries are classified as Endangered, Vulnerable or Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Sharks caught on the high seas are managed by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, including the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). ICCAT will next meet from November 9-15 in Recife, Brazil. It was set up in 1966 to manage the fishing of tuna and similar species, such as sharks, in the Atlantic Ocean.
At the ICCAT meeting in Brazil, Pew will call on delegates to set science-based, sustainable catch limits on the number of sharks taken in high seas fisheries, including limits for North Atlantic shortfin mako and blue sharks, and the prohibition on the retention of exceptionally vulnerable shark species, such as the bigeye thresher.
In addition to advocating for shark conservation and management measures, Pew will also work to secure sustainable management of North Atlantic bluefin tuna. In October, ICCAT’s scientists determined that bluefin tuna populations are at less than 15% of their historic size before commercial fishing began – the qualifying threshold for a listing in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). An Appendix I listing would ban international commercial trade. To save North Atlantic bluefin tuna from becoming commercially extinct, ICCAT members must agree to a zero quota for the fishery so that the species can begin to recover. Materials prepared for this meeting include:
Pew initiated the Shark Alliance, a coalition of non-governmental organizations dedicated to restoring and conserving shark populations by improving shark conservation policy. The coalition includes 76 conservation, scientific and recreational organizations representing all regions of the world. See www.sharkalliance.org.
Oct 27, 2008 - Dr. Colin Simpfendorfer and the Lenfest Ocean Program convened an international expert working group to estimate the risk of overfishing for twelve pelagic, or open ocean, shark and ray species caught in Atlantic pelagic longline fisheries under the jurisdiction of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.
Read: Summary View: Full Report (Adobe PDF)
Jun 11, 2008 - Study suggests the Mediterranean Sea may be losing large predatory sharks.
May 22, 2008 - Fishing spans all oceans and the impact on ocean predators such as sharks and rays is largely unknown. A lack of data and complicated jurisdictional issues present particular challenges for assessing and conserving high seas biodiversity.
Apr 01, 2008 - Recent studies document unprecedented declines in marine top predators that can initiate trophic cascades.
May 20, 2007 - Sharks are at the top of the marine food pyramid. Were they to disappear, the havoc to ocean ecosystems would be catastrophic. Article by Colin Woodard about the shark finning debate.
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