The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 9: June 1997
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NMFS Takes Aggressive Stance To Prevent Continued Overfishing
Michael Bailey, National Marine Fisheries Service, USA
In December's Shark News, Merry Camhi discussed US management of large coastal sharks. I would like to update her article and discuss the history and current state of US management of Atlantic sharks in general.
The idea began in 1989 when five fishery management councils asked the Secretary of Commerce to develop a Fishery Management Plan for Sharks of the Atlantic Ocean (FMP). FMP development proved to be a challenge and the final FMP was not implemented until April 1993. The objectives are to:
The basking shark: protected from directed commercial fishing.
©1989 by Sid F. Cook. All rights reserved.
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- Prevent overfishing of shark resources;
- Encourage management throughout their ranges;
- Establish a shark resource data collection, research, and monitoring programme; and
- Increase the benefits from shark resources to the US while reducing waste, consistent with the other objectives.
The most important accomplishments of the FMP were to establish commercial quotas and recreational bag limits, require permits and reports from all commercial interests, require reports from selected recreational tournaments, and expressly prohibit 'finning' of sharks. The FMP also established a Shark Operations Team to advise the agency on shark management.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) actively manages 39 species of sharks that are broken down into three major groups for management purposes: small coastal, large coastal and pelagic.
More than 30 additional species are not in the management units but are included for data collection purposes. The large coastal group, comprising most commercially valuable species, is overfished.
NMFS has taken an aggressive stance to prevent continued overfishing of large coastal sharks.
Following implementation of the FMP a 'derby' fishery developed. NMFS responded by establishing a 4,000 lb trip limit and by implementing a control date of 22 February 1994 to discourage speculative entry into the fishery.
NMFS has recently published a proposed rule that will, if implemented, significantly limit the number of participants in the fishery.
In March 1994, NMFS held a Shark Evaluation Workshop (SEW) to assess the state of the stocks.
The SEW committee, comprising both NMFS and non-NMFS scientists, determined that stocks of large coastal sharks appeared to have been substantially depleted since the mid to late 1970s and that, at least in aggregate, large coastal sharks were well below the biomass associated with maximum sustainable yield (MSY).
The committee felt that the projected quota increase for 1995 should be delayed indefinitely, and that the single most important supplementary measure that might be implemented would be a closure of nursery grounds to directed fishing during pupping season. NMFS indefinitely delayed projected quota increase.
Soon after the 1994 SEW Report was published, the SEW concerns over nursery grounds prompted the Highly Migratory Species Management Division of NMFS to establish the Integrated Shark Research and Management Program (ISHARK) to focus scattered agency resources on answering questions needed for successful management.
NMFS scientists, along with scientists from industry, academia, and several marine laboratories, focused their efforts on locating and evaluating shark nurseries and pupping areas.
As a result of the ISHARK programme's intensified efforts, NMFS has successfully located and evaluated numerous shark nursery and pupping areas and NMFS has generated two letters to state marine resource agencies' directors asking that they close their waters to fishing in critical nursery and pupping areas when juveniles and pregnant females are present.
The 1995 annual report, using updated data to the extent possible, again concluded that the projected quota increase should be delayed indefinitely.
In May 1995, NMFS heeded the report's advice and capped the commercial quota for large coastal sharks at 2,570 metric tons dressed weight (mt dw) annually.
In June 1996, NMFS held a second SEW. The report concluded that additional reductions in fishing mortality would improve the probability of stock increases for large coastal sharks.
The SEW Report also indicated that the greatest impediments to improving shark stock assessments continue to be the general lack of species-specific and size-specific catch and effort data, and fishery-independent measures of stock abundance and productivity.
The SEW report prompted NMFS to implement an even more aggressive management regime for Atlantic sharks. In April 1997, NMFS:
- reduced the commercial quota for large coastal sharks by 50%, down to 1,285 mt dw annually;
- established a commercial quota of 1,760 mt dw for small coastal sharks;
- reduced the recreational baglimit to two large coastal and/or pelagic sharks combined per vessel per trip plus two Atlantic sharpnose sharks per person per trip;
- prohibited directed commercial and recreational fishing for whale, basking, sand tiger, bigeye sand tiger and white sharks (but allowed recreational catch-and-release only fishing for white sharks);
- prohibited filleting of sharks at sea; and
- required species-specific identification of all sharks landed.
Multinational research and management efforts have been primary
goals of NMFS since FMP implementation. The US and Canada have
agreed to conduct joint research of shared stocks and continue to
work together to devise bilateral management of those shared stocks.
A joint US/Canadian age and growth study of porbeagle sharks,
sponsored by ISHARK, is ongoing. The US and Mexico are planning
to conduct a joint bioassessment research cruise this coming summer.
A key goal of the cruise will be to identify and characterise shared
stocks and to evaluate the extent to which these migratory shared
stocks move between our respective countries.
The basic goal of fishery biology is to estimate the amount of fish
that can be safely removed while keeping the fish population healthy.
Management of the fishery is accomplished by considering these
estimates, which may be modified by political, economic, and social
considerations, thus management of any fishery is a complex endeavor.
Since implementation of the FMP, NMFS has been very actively
involved in managing sharks. Though there is much left to do, there
has been progress toward curtailing the precipitous decline of shark
stocks, and successfully managing the Atlantic shark resource. In
addition, through its ISHARK program, NMFS has made significant
contributions to the overall scientific research effort by channelling
much needed financial support and scientific expertise to a wide
variety of projects.
Michael Bailey
Highly Migratory Species Management Division
National Marine Fisheries Service
1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring,
Maryland 20910, USA
Fax: + 1 301 588-4967.
Email: Michael.Bailey@noaa.gov
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