Strasbourg, 29/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament decided in the end on 28 September not to relax current rules on shark fishing, disagreeing with the views of the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee (see EUROPE No. 9255). EU legislation authorises the marketing of shark fins as long as the ship uses the entire catch (body and sponsons) and the weight of the sponsons never exceeds 5% of the weight of the sharks' carcasses. The draft report suggested increasing this to 6.5%, especially for blue fin sharks. Adopting the report by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PES, Spain) by 483 to 58 with 21 abstentions, the EP finally recommended not increasing the theoretical proportion of fins as compared with the live weight of shark. The MEPs in fact want the percentage to be reduced to 2% if possible, following analysis of the scientific data. The EP regrets that not all Member States are strictly observing their obligations in terms of monitoring ships and publishing reports on shark fishing and catches.