The European Commission Pushes to Close Loopholes in Shark Finning Ban
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The Pew coordinated Shark Alliance coalition welcomed the long-awaited proposal today from the European Commission for closing the loopholes in the European Union (EU) shark finning ban.
The high value of shark fins, in contrast to the typically lower value of shark meat, creates the economic incentive for shark finning–the practice of slicing off a shark's fins and discarding the body at sea. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), every year millions of sharks are finned worldwide.
Since the early 1990s, finning has been banned by approximately 30 countries, with the EU ban occurring in 2003. Most international fisheries bodies banned finning in 2004 and 2005. The current EU regulation, however, cannot ensure that finning is not continuing undetected and unpunished. EU Member States, for example, can grant special fishing permits that allow fishermen to remove shark fins at sea and bring bodies and fins to separate ports. Spain and Portugal grant them for most of their shark fishermen, and Cyprus has recently issued one. Spain’s fishing industry and government are expected to continue to lead the opposition to proposed improvements in the finning ban. The EU, particularly Spain, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of shark fins to Asia.
The Commission proposal, if adopted by the European Parliament and Council of Fisheries Ministers from the EU’s 27 member states, would end special fishing permits and ensure that all sharks taken by EU vessels or in EU waters are landed with their fins naturally attached to their bodies. The “fins naturally attached” policy has been recommended by the IUCN and the United Nations and is already used in shark fisheries in Central America, Australia, and the United States. Marine conservationists and scientists recommended this policy as the most reliable means of enforcing a finning ban. Landing sharks with fins attached offers vastly improved information about the species caught, which is vital for robust population assessment and effective shark management.
“The Commission’s proposal is a positive step toward the much-needed protection of sharks,” said Sandrine Polti, shark policy adviser to the Pew Environment Group and the Shark Alliance. “It is the only reliable way of ensuring that sharks are not finned.”
EU Shark Conservation
The EU is a global shark fishing power, and its record on shark conservation is changing.
The EU’s notorious not-so-distant past–characterized by severe shark population depletion, unregulated fishing, and exceptionally weak regulations–is now finally being balanced by recent, significant strides toward limiting EU shark fisheries and securing international protections for the most vulnerable shark species.
A briefing document recently published by the Shark Alliance, "EU Shark Conservation: Recent Progress and Priorities for Action," charts the progress of the EU in implementing the 2009 European Community Action Plan for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (Shark Action Plan).
Closing the loopholes in the EU ban on finning is one part of the EU’s effort to implement this plan. The next big challenge is to enforce science-based limits on shark fisheries before populations collapse and to provide special protections for endangered shark species.
