Calls For NZ Shark Fin Ban

March 8, 2005

Release from: www.stuff.co.nz

Fishing bodies are calling for a New Zealand-wide ban on shark finning as the cruel practice is blamed for devastating shark populations.

Shark finning – where a shark's fins are cut off for the Asian delicacy shark fin soup – is feared to have caused falling shark numbers in the waters around New Zealand.

Concerns remain that in the past some commercial boats and longliners catching sharks as a bycatch, fin the sharks before tossing them back into the water.

A wounded shark would sink to the bottom of the sea and die in pain.

Live shark finning is illegal in New Zealand. A quota system covers sharks captured dead that are finned.

New Zealand's Big Game Fishing Council and Recreational Fishing Council are supporting calls by Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club for a national ban, amid fears unnecessary shark finning is taking place.

Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club president Terry Jenkins said his group had no way to prove the extent of illegal shark finning but "little vibes" were heard through different channels. The club strongly supported a ban as part of conservation efforts.

About 99 per cent of sharks caught by the club's 1300 members were tagged and released. A weight limit of 90 kilograms was set to preserve breeding. The killing of an estimated 100 million sharks a year worldwide for their fins would affect shark numbers in New Zealand, he said.

Big Game Fishing Council president Jeff Romeril said that for 10 years his council had tried to get a ban on a practice seen as cruel and a waste.

"The sharks are being hunted to a point where they are not as common – there is worldwide concern about the shortage of sharks," Mr Romeril said.

Shark fin soup was an Asian delicacy "and there is no end of demand".

Shark quota rules introduced by the Fisheries Ministry in October had reduced shark finning to a degree, he said, but New Zealand lagged behind other countries in not having a ban.

Some commercial fishing boats had been known to be involved in illegally finning sharks caught as a byproduct, he said. The fins were sold as a cash deal.

"The dumping of sharks off the boat is totally abhorrent to most people."

Though shark numbers changed from year to year, Mr Romeril said the council's recent national big-game fishing tournament found that fewer mako and blue sharks were around.

In Dunedin 20 sharks were tagged and freed over eight days this year, compared with 40 sharks a day in previous years.

Max Hetherington of the Recreational Fishing Council also supported the shark finning ban, saying it was a huge waste and extremely cruel.

The ministry's senior fisheries management adviser, Arthur Hore, said there was concern about sustainability of shark populations. But any decline in blue and mako sharks could also be linked to environmental issues as they travelled into the Pacific.

In a step to limit shark catches and deaths, the ministry introduced mako, blue shark and Porbeagle shark species into its quota management system on October 1.

"If there were indications that stock was declining, the quota system is a tool that allows management change," Mr Hore said.