Brussels, 03/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is due to adopt an action plan on Thursday 5 February to protect sharks and other elasmobranchs (such as ray and ratfish). The communication from Joe Borg on this issue is expected to recommend greater account being taken of scientific opinion, improving controls and beefing up the 2003 regulation which bans the practice of finning. Finning consists of removing the sharks' fins on board vessels and throwing the body back into the sea. It is a practice that is banned in Community waters, but there are loopholes that allow the general rule to be circumvented.
Shark Alliance, a coalition of over 60 environmental, scientific and marine leisure organisations, has given its backing to the aims of the European action plan: tougher legislation on the fishery and fresh initiatives on data gathering. Most sharks, the Alliance says, are particularly at risk from overfishing because of their slow growth and low level reproduction rates. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), almost a third of Europe's elasmobranchs face extinction. Spain is the EU's largest shark fisher (46% of the EU total, according to FAO figures for 2005), then come France (19.5%), the United Kingdom (14.6%) and Portugal (6.5%). Shark Alliance claims that “Loopholes make the existing EU finning ban the world's weakest”.
On Tuesday 3 February, Oceana, an organisation dedicated to protecting the world's oceans, published a report which lifts the lid a little on shark fishing activities. It should be noted that, with the exception of the porbeagle, shark are not targeted by fishing in the EU (they are a by-catch). In 2005, the EU was responsible for 56% of world shark meat imports and for 32% of worldwide exports, reveals the Oceana report, “From the Head to Tail: How European nation as commercialise shark products” (http://www.oceana.org ). In 2006, the report continues, EU countries (mainly Spain, Portugal, France and Germany) imported more than 40,000 tonnes of shark meat. Sharks are hunted mainly for their fins, which are used in the traditional Asian shark fin soup. Spain supplies around 95% of fins exported from Europe. Oceana recommends that the following measures be included in the European action plan on sharks: - fishing limits for commercially targeted species should be established and fishing for endangered species banned; - the European ban on the practice of finning should be strengthened and loopholes closed; - shark by-catches should be minimised; - threatened shark species and their habitats should be identified and given full protection; - shark fisheries monitoring and control should be strengthened; - data collection on shark fisheries, species-specific trade and shark biology should be improved. (L.C./transl.rt)