In the run-up to next week’s EU fishing quota negotiations, the Shark Trust is calling on the UK and other EU Fisheries Ministers to protect critically endangered spurdog and porbeagle sharks, in line with scientific advice. The quota decisions come just three months before Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) debate EU proposals for spurdog and porbeagle trade limits.
“Continued conservation leadership from the UK is vital to secure groundbreaking European and international protections for two of our most endangered sharks,” said Ali Hood, Shark Trust Director of Conservation. “We urge all EU countries to agree to set EU spurdog and porbeagle fishing limits at zero for 2010. Such decisive action is needed to save European populations of the particularly vulnerable shark species and to improve the chances for limiting their international trade.”
Scientists advising European fisheries managers have recommended ending all fishing of spurdog and porbeagle. British officials have banned the landing of porbeagle in line with this advice, but the UK maintains more than 40% of allowable EU catches of spurdog (nearly 1,500 tonnes total). At the last CITES Conference in 2007, the EU shark listing proposals were defeated partly due to arguments that the EU’s own spurdog and porbeagle fishing limits were inconsistent with scientific advice.
