Kategorie: News
A success for Sharkproject
The species protection organization Sharkproject, has been campaigning for over 500 shark species and the marine ecosystem in several countries since 2002. The countries of Spain and Portugal, however, have been rather negative examples in shark protection matters. Now, however, they are announcing measures to protect the endangered mako shark. Nevertheless, the survival of this endangered deep-sea species in the Atlantic is still uncertain.
In January 2021, the Spanish government announced it would ban landings of the endangered shortfin mako shark from the North Atlantic and would no longer allow it to be caught. And Portugal is now following suit.
"This is an important step by Spain and Portugal for the rescue of the shortfin mako shark stock in the North Atlantic, which is on the verge of total collapse, and for the protection of the seas and sharks in general. We urge Morocco, which is second only to Spain in catches, to take an example from these two countries and stop catching and landing mako sharks as well," said Dr. Iris Ziegler, head of International Cooperations at Sharkproject.
The species conservation organization wants to prevent a similarly dramatic situation with the shark population in the South Atlantic as in the North Atlantic in the near future. "We therefore call on all member states of ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) to quickly follow the example of Spain and Portugal and ban fishing in the southern Atlantic as well," Dr. Iris Ziegler continues.
"The huge fishing fleets of Spain and Portugal have almost wiped out shark stocks in the North Atlantic in recent decades and are largely responsible for the dramatic situation of the mako shark, accounting for over 60 percent of the catch. Now Spain and Portugal are sending an important signal to the EU to finally take pan-European and international action. We hope that Portugal will use its current EU presidency to finally improve the situation" adds Alexander Smolinsky, President of Sharkproject International.
Mako sharks are on the IUCN Red List and are therefore threatened with extinction. In 2019, they were listed in Appendix II of the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Now Spain and Portugal also want to fulfill their obligation under the CITES provisions to protect the mako sharks. But the EU delegation only voted in November 2020 against adopting the proposal for an immediate landing ban put forward by Canada, Senegal, the UK, Taiwan and Gabon.
"Unfortunately, the EU continues to put the fishing interests of individual member states above the need for marine conservation and species protection. By refusing to support and implement a general landing ban of mako sharks, the EU has been disregarding scientific findings and the recommendations of experts and marine conservation organizations for years," said Dr. Iris Ziegler.
At the moment, the citizens' initiative "Stop Finning EU" is running, which wants to ban the trade with shark fins in the EU. Although shark finning, where sharks have their fins cut off before they are thrown back into the sea crippled and die a miserable death, is banned in the EU, more than one million sharks still fall victim to the heinous practice of shark finning every year.
A citizens' initiative now wants to push through a final, general ban on the trade in fins. More than 160,000 EU citizens have already signed the initiative. Participation is still possible until October 31, 2021. Pleaase also sign:
https://eci.ec.europa.eu/012/public/#/screen/home
Donation account Sharkproject International
IBAN: AT09 2011 1828 2116 7301
BIC: GIBAATWWXXX
See also:
Europas größter Haiumschlagsplatz (German)
Stop finning, stop the trade