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The thornback ray, a species found in the Black Sea, was featured on a Bulgarian stamp in the 1960s and is increasingly showing up in Bulgarian fishing reports today. Bulgarian vessels were part of a commercial Black Sea spiny dogfish (spurdog) fishery that peaked in the early 1980s.
Today, Black Sea spurdog are still sought after (by commercial and recreational fishermen), unregulated, and – as a result -- seriously overfished, In 1979, Bulgaria was one of the founding members of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) – the regional fisheries management body that set the world’s first international quota for skate.
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Bulgaria’s shark and ray catches consisted of spurdog from the Mediterranean and Black Sea until 2007. Since then, spurdog catches have dropped off considerably, common stingrays have shown up in fishing records, and reported landings of thornback rays have increased significantly.
While Bulgaria’s shark and ray exports are consistently low, the country’s imports of frozen sharks have increased dramatically over the last 15 years.
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Bulgaria has 17 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), six (35%) of whom signed the Written Declaration (71/2010) in support of strengthening the EU shark finning ban.
One member of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee is from Bulgaria but did not support the shark finning Written Declaration.
Bulgaria has ten votes in the EU Fisheries Council.
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Bulgaria does not issue the special permits that allow EU fishermen to remove shark fins at sea under the current EU finning regulation. Bulgarian fishermen are therefore required to land sharks with their fins still attached. In April 2009, Bulgaria was generally supportive of the EU Shark Plan, including the pledged improvements to the finning ban.
At the March 2012 EU Fisheries Council, Bulgaria supported the Commission’s proposal to require all sharks to be landed with fins attached.
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| Beyond EU and international commitments, there are no national protections for shark and ray species in Bulgaria. |
If your organization is interested in joining the Shark Alliance in Bulgaria, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
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Bulgaria Country Profile
Reports
Press Releases
14.12.2006 Black Sea Sharks at Risk Read
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Concerned citizens, particularly those of Bulgaria, can help by expressing to Bulgarian officials support for:
- active promotion for an EU-wide ban on at-sea shark fin removal
- national protections for endangered shark and ray species
- fisheries management for sharks and rays of the Black Sea and Mediterranean
- continued closure of EU Atlantic porbeagle, spurdog, and deepwater shark fisheries, and
- EU leadership in bringing the NAFO skate quota in line with scientific advice.
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