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Building Common Ground on EU Shark Conservation
9 October 2008
The Shark Alliance, the European Bureau
for Conservation and Development and Pretoma co-hosted a workshop aimed
at agreeing points of common ground regarding European Union (EU) shark
fishing policies.
The following abstract provided context for the workshop:
Sharks
are among the oceans’ most vulnerable and vital animals. The EU is a
major player in the global catch of sharks and yet most EU shark
fisheries remain unregulated. IUCN finds that Europe’s percentage of
Threatened shark species (one third) is among the world’s highest. The
European Commission is developing a Community Plan of Action (CPOA) for
Sharks through which it has proposed strengthening the finning ban and
establishing shark limits. There are varying viewpoints on EU shark
management and priorities.
The workshop was chaired by Carl Lundin, Head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme and featured the following panelists:
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| Hammerhead shark © Neil Hammerschlag |
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• Javier Garat, Secretary General of Cepesca (Spanish Fishing Confederation).
• Rafael Centenera Ulecia, Fisheries Advisor to the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs.
• Sonja Fordham, Policy Director for the Shark Alliance and Shark Conservation Program Director for Ocean Conservancy.
• Antonio Fernandez-Aguirre, Shark plan lead for the Directorate General for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, European Commission
• Sarah Fowler, Chair, IUCN Shark Specialist Group
• Randall Arauz, Pretoma Program Director
• Jo Myers, Senior Scientific Advisor for Defra
Panelists
gave brief presentations that covered their general perspective on the
shark issue and three proposals for consensus statements or measures
related to EU shark management. The presentations were followed by
comments and questions from the audience and discussion of the
panelists’ proposals.
The participants achieved their
goals of focusing on possible steps forward, avoiding unproductive
polarization, and identifying areas of consensus to inform upcoming
decisions of the Commission and EU Member States with respect to shark
fishing regulations at national, EU and international levels.
Specifically, the panellists found common ground on the following
recommended actions:
1. As long as fin to carcass ratios
are used to enforce the EU finning ban, shark fins and bodies should be
landed in the same port at the same time;
2. The EU should initiate a pilot project to study the feasibility and economic impacts of a fins attached policy;
3. Statistical documentation and reporting of shark catches needs to be improved;
4. Scientific
advice from the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
regarding shark and ray species should be implemented at national, EU
and international levels;
5. All Regional Fishery Management
Organizations (RFMOs) should freeze and work to reduce over time
capacity in the international longline fisheries;
6. RFMOs,
particularly the International Commission for the Conservation of
Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT ), the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and
the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) should establish
trade measures and catch documentation schemes for sharks, with a focus
on the market for fins;
7. The EU should propose and work
to secure measures to protect bigeye threshers (Alopias superciliosus),
porbeagle (Lamna nasus) and hammerheads (Sphyrna spp.) at the 2008
ICCAT annual meeting, and for hammerheads (Sphyrna spp.) and thresher
sharks (Alopias spp.) at the next IATTC meeting (recognizing that the
EU is a Party to ICCAT and an observer at IATTC);
8. Regulations
to implement measures set forth in the CPOA should be initiated as soon
as possible (some immediately, others promptly after response from
Council of Ministers in early 2009);
9. Countries should
use existing customs codes for sharks and rays more effectively and
promote the development of an international framework for improved
coding which differentiates among various shark species and products. |
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