The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 1: June 1994
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Campaign for a Living Coast
English Nature is pleased to sponsor the first
edition of Shark News. We wish it every success
and hope that it will provide a focus for the
exchange of information within the Shark
Specialist Group and with other interested parties.
In 1992 English Nature set out a long-term
conservation programme to achieve effective
solutions to the over-exploitation and lack of
proper care which now threatens our coasts and
estuaries, and many of the species living in the
seas around them. As the 'Campaign for a Living
Coast' continues, issues such as coastal protection
and development, sustainable management of estuaries and the
promotion of sensitive marine areas as a form of conserving important
areas for marine wildlife are being addressed.
Within our work, commercial and recreational fisheries have
been recognised as an area where both like-minded and opposing
views exist in relation to the conservation of marine wildlife. In order
to develop better understanding of fisheries and their potential impacts,
English Nature has developed policies on
particular areas of concern. One of these policies
advocates a review of priorities for research,
stock assessment and management protocols for
sharks, skates and rays. These non-quota species
are subject to particular pressure as a result of
their slow growth, time taken to reach maturity
and the production of small numbers of young
which are vulnerable to fishing from birth. Despite
these facts, fisheries for such species lack any
form of conservation regulation in Britain.
With the decommissioning of the last British
licensed basking shark fishing vessel, further consideration will also be
given to protecting this species using the provisions of the Wildlife and
Countryside Act.
If you are able to provide any information that would help in our
work, please contact Paul Knapman, Marine Fisheries Officer, English
Nature, Northminster House, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE1
1UA, UK. Tel. (44) (0) 733 318298.
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