In a new report, a leading marine conservation organisation has recommended that two European shark species should be listed among endangered species.
Oceana supported an earlier proposal from Germany to include porbeagle and spurdog in the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The convention aims to regulate international trade of endangered species within sustainable levels.
“While traditional fisheries management like catch limits and closed areas are sometimes used to regulate shark fisheries,” said Xavier Pastor, Executive Director for Oceana in Europe, adding that “these are not widely applied to threatened species and habitats and many shark fisheries are still completely unmanaged. There are many shark and ray species that warrant protection by the relevant biodiversity conventions, and the measures outlined in the conventions must be transposed into national laws.”
This Friday, the EU Scientific Review Group, a team of scientists from Member States’ scientific authorities, will provide an opinion on the listing of these two endangered sharks on Appendix II. An Appendix II listing would limit trade to sustainable levels through the requirement of export permits, only authorized if the trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species.
When the 2009 catch quotas for porbeagle and spurdog was up for a vote in the EU Council last December, the Commission had proposed no catches allowed at all. The ministers however, overruled that recommendation and decided on a 25 percent TAC decrease for the porbeagle and 50 per cent for the spurdog, with maximum landing sizes of 110 and 100 centimetres, respectively.