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Maldives Ban Fishing of Sharks

10-03-2010 by Lucy Harrison (0 comments)

The Maldives will make its territorial waters into a shark sanctuary. Maldives becomes the second nation to announce blanket protection for its sharks. The Maldives exclusive economic zone covers about 90,000 square kilometers, or 35,000 square miles, roughly equivalent to the land area of Portugal.

Bluefin tuna trade ban gains EU backing

10-03-2010 by Lucy Harrison (0 comments)

The EU has decided to support a ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, reports indicate.

The bloc is reported to have agreed to push for a ban at next week's meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

 

The US has already backed such a move, but Japan - where most bluefin is eaten - may opt out of CITES controls.

The EU is likely to back exemptions for traditional fishers, and defer the ban pending scientific reports.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8560896.stm

Thresher Sharks Protected by Indian Ocean Tuna Commission

08-03-2010 by Lucy Harrison (0 comments)

EU proposal leads to historic vote and fishing ban for three vulnerable species

A historic ban on fishing for thresher sharks has been adopted by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) at their annual meeting in Korea.   The proposal to protect all three thresher species, offered by the European Union (EU), earned support from Japan, and passed in a secret ballot, 14-3.  It was the first vote ever taken by the consensus-minded commission and sets the IOTC as the leading international fisheries body in terms of shark species protection.

 
In 2008, scientists identified the bigeye thresher as the Atlantic, oceanic shark at highest risk of overfishing which led to protection for this one thresher species under the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in 2009.  All species of thresher sharks are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as globally Vulnerable.
 
The EU was not successful in its proposal to secure IOTC protection for hammerhead sharks. Hammerhead fins are exceptionally valuable for use in the traditional, Asian delicacy “shark fin soup”; high demand for fins creates incentive for “finning” (slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea).  Scalloped hammerheads, classified by IUCN as Endangered Globally, are heavily fished, even as pups, and “very often” finned in the region, according to IOTC scientists.