The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 8: December 1996
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Activities Undertaken by FAO Towards the Implementation of CITES Resolution Conf. 9.17 on Sharks
Dr David Ardill,
FIDI, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
The Ninth Conference of CITES Contracting Parties requested the collation of species-specific catch and trade data on sharks. In response to this request, FAO agreed to collate data supplied by national reporting offices and by regional fishery commissions. Funding for this activity has been secured through one of the elements of a Trust Fund established by the Government of Japan.
The FAO studies have been broadened to cover all elasmobranchs and it is proposed to:
- undertake a consultancy on the biological and trade data available on sharks;
- produce an FAO Global Species Catalogue for batoid fishes (skates and rays) and revise the Shark World Species Catalogue
produced in the early 1980s; and
- update the Shark Utilization and Marketing Monograph issued in 1978.
The first activity should be completed by the second or third quarter of 1997. The batoid species catalogue and shark utilisation monograph are unlikely to be completed before the end of 1997.
The data currently available to FAO are highly variable in quality and cover only a proportion of catches and trade. In particular, catch data which have been submitted by national statistical reporting offices are rarely available at the species level and generally only concern landed catch, as discards are not currently reported.
The catch data held by FAO have not been collated with the intention of stock assessment or management. As a consequence, the level of aggregation is by country, year, species and FAO statistical area. For management, data should be by species, fishing gear, month and in finer spatial strata.
While data collected by regional fishery organisations may eventually be forthcoming at the required level of detail, they will primarily concern the oceanic species of sharks, rather than the coastal species of elasmobranchs, which may be most at risk.
Few national statistical systems are designed to handle more than a handful of species. FAO has designed 'generic' software for statistical recording that removes limitations on the number of species which can be recorded. However, collecting statistics on elasmobranchs would require enumerators to be trained in species identification. This may be extremely difficult, particularly when dressed carcasses or fins are the only portions landed. Also, few elasmobranchs are caught in directly targeted fisheries. Accurate statistics of discards might only be achieved through observer programmes which are costly and difficult to run.
Trade data are largely compiled by customs authorities and species identification problems are compounded by the fact that much of the elasmobranchs traded are in a highly processed form such as dried, salted, cartilage and oils. Far from being reported at the species level, many elasmobranch products are classified simply as 'fish'. Trade patterns may be complex involving multiple imports and exports of products such as fins into the same country at different levels of processing which could lead to double counting. Long storage can also blur the origin of products.
It is unlikely that national fisheries statistical systems will be able, in the near future, to provide the level of detail needed for management. In tuna fisheries, this has been recognised and has led to the creation of treaty-based management bodies. Such a solution might be more difficult to achieve for sharks in view of the generally marginal economic interest of sharks.
A more focused approach is therefore needed, based on the known biological characteristics of the species affecting their susceptibility to overfishing, combined with recent catch trends for the area or country involved.
The FAO consultancy on biological and trade data on sharks started in July and the consultant - Dr Jose Castro from the US NMFS Southeast Center - has been to FAO to examine available data. Bibliographic research and the examination of available data sets is under way. Scientists in countries with shark fisheries for which data are available and, if possible, where management has been applied, will be requested under authors' contracts to write detailed descriptions of the fisheries, data collection and management experience, using a framework for comparability.
A data form was mailed to all the statistical reporting offices supplying data to FAO. While this may duplicate work undertaken by CITES, different information sources are being targeted. As detailed data become available, a database will be set up in FAO. The design and implementation, as well as the modalities of access or data diffusion, still need to be elaborated.
FAO will also undertake genetic studies to determine the factors permitting the identification of elasmobranch species. This should provide a valuable tool where body parts are not sufficiently large to permit identification. It is extremely unlikely, however, that this type of tool will be usable in the foreseeable future for statistical purposes. The cost and complexity will limit the application to small samples for research or forensic purposes.
Dr David Ardill,
FIDI, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
Fax: + 396 52 253 605 / 253 162, email: David.Ardill@fao.org
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