The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 13: July 2001
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International shark conservation and management initiatives
Mike Pawson, CEFAS, Lowestoft, UK and Sarah Fowler, SSG
We are well aware that modern fishing technology and improved access to distant markets have together caused an increase in fishing effort and catches of sharks, skates and rays, and there is concern of the consequences for the populations of some species in several areas of the world's oceans. Because the elasmobranchs' close stock-recruitment relationships denies them the variability which enables most teleost fish populations to be boosted by better-than-average year classes, they have long recovery times in response to over-fishing. At present, there are few international management mechanisms effectively addressing this, and management and conservation of elasmobranchs are held back by a lack of knowledge of their biological parameters and of the statistics and practices employed in fisheries taking them.
FAO International Plan of Action for Sharks
FAO has concluded that "it is necessary to better manage directed shark (for which read 'all chondrichthyan fish') catches and certain multispecies fisheries in which sharks constitute a significant bycatch", and has recognised the importance of having international co-operation and co-ordination of shark management plans. The International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks) has therefore been developed, endorsed by the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in February 1999, and was formally adopted by the FAO Conference in November 1999. Its objective is to ensure the conservation and management of sharks and their long-term sustainable use, and encompasses both target and non-target catches. For more information see Shark News no. 12 (p.5) or the FAO Fisheries website (http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/fishery).
The IPOA encouraged States to adopt (by the COFI session in 2001) a National Plan of Action (NPOA or Shark-plan) and to carry out regular assessments of the status of shark stocks subject to fishing. This would necessitate consistent collection of commercial data and improved species identification, and would ultimately lead to the establishment of abundance indices and biological reference levels. International collaboration on data collection and data sharing systems for stock assessment is particularly important in relation to straddling, highly migratory and high seas stocks.
Committee on Fisheries (COFI) 2001
COFI is the only global inter-governmental forum examining major international fisheries and aquaculture problems and issues. It addresses recommendations to governments, regional fishery bodies, NGOs, fishworkers, FAO and the international community, and has also been used as a forum for the negotiation of global agreements and non-binding instruments. The 24th COFI meeting took place in Rome on 26 February to 2 March 2001.
Shark management plans reviewed
The UN States present reviewed their progress with implementing the Code of Conduct on Responsible Fisheries, including the IPOA-Sharks. The level of progress announced at the meeting was disappointing. At least 125 nations are known to import shark fin into Hong Kong and are therefore assumed to have active shark fisheries. Despite this, however, only 17 member states had reported that they were preparing NPOAs prior to COFI, about 15 were considering doing so and 47 had stated that were not doing so. It was far from clear precisely how well advanced most of these plans were.
The USA's Shark Plan, the only national plan completed and available, may be downloaded from www.nmfs.noaa.gov. This plan benefits from being able to build on a long history of shark fisheries assessment and management in the USA, particularly on the Atlantic coast. The USA urged other states at COFI to complete their shark plans, emphasising that this should only be the first step towards comprehensive shark fisheries management at national, regional and global levels.
Australia presented a comprehensive shark fishery assessment, which will provide a sound basis for their national plan, which is currently being developed.
The European Union tabled a 'preliminary draft assessment' which provided minimal information on shark fisheries and existing and potential shark management activity in the EU.
No other shark assessments or National Shark Plans reported by other delegations to COFI as underway or completed are available for study.
ICES Elasmobranch Study Group
In parallel with the development of the FAO IPOA-Sharks, the ICES Elasmobranch Study Group took the initiative to develop a European proposal for elasmobranch stock assessments. Eighteen scientists from eleven countries met in Santander in March 1999 assisted by an EC funded Concerted Action Project entitled 'Preparation of a Proposal for Stock Assessment of some elasmobranch fishes in European waters'. This was submitted successfully under the 1999 call for studies in support of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), commenced in 1 January 2000 and is due for completion by 31st December 2002.
Development of Elasmobranch Assessments
The objective of this 3-year research programme, DELAS (Development of Elasmobranch Assessments), is to improve the scientific basis for the management of fisheries taking elasmobranch species. This project aims to collate existing data, to instigate the collection of new data and to develop standard assessment methods for one or two representative species of each of four groups: pelagic sharks (blue shark Prionace glauca), skates and rays (thornback ray Raja clavata and cuckoo ray Raja naevus), coastal dogfish and catsharks (spurdog Squalus acanthias, and lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula), and deep-water sharks (Portuguese dogfish Centroscymnus coelolepis, leaf-scale gulper shark Centrophorus squamosus, kitefin shark Dalatias licha and blackmouth catshark Galeus melastomus).
For this purpose, survey and fisheries data will be used to describe population distribution that, together with genetic, tagging and biometric data, will be used to investigate stock separation. Commercial and survey catch and effort series will be used to indicate abundance trends, and length (and possibly age) distributions will be used to estimate historic and contemporary stock mortality rates. A key element of the research is the development of life history models and the compilation of appropriate biological data, which will be used to indicate whether current exploitation is sustainable.
This study will provide a dedicated database and preliminary assessments for some important elasmobranch stocks, and will furnish ICES with a knowledge of data requirements and assessment methods which can be applied to elasmobranch species in order to provide management advice for both targeted fisheries and where elasmobranchs are taken as by-catch.
Mike Pawson
CEFAS Fisheries Laboratory
Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK, NR33 0HT
Email:M.G.Pawson@cefas.co.uk
Sarah Fowler, Email:sarahfowler@naturebureau.co.uk
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