Government Fails Sharks

The Ocean Conservancy
Friday, 29 June 2001

Conservationists Blast Fisheries Service for Reinstating Shark Overfishing

Ocean Wildlife Campaign, National Audubon Society, National Coalition For Marine Conservation, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Ocean Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund

The Ocean Wildlife Campaign (OWC) today expressed outrage at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announcement that fishing in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico for sandbar, blacktip, tiger, hammerhead and other large coastal sharks will reopen July 1, putting these slow-growing, severely overfished predators in serious jeopardy. The OWC, an alliance of six national environmental groups, called on NMFS to protect the sharks by keeping the fishery closed until the results of a new scientific review of their condition is completed.

"Once again, fishery managers have failed to provide these vulnerable fish the priority and protection that their biology warrants," said Sonja Fordham, shark fisheries specialist at the Ocean Conservancy. "The large coastal shark quota can be caught in a matter of weeks, rendering the entire process moot and representing a shameful waste of public resources."

In December 2000, the federal government settled a fishing industry lawsuit by agreeing to subject the 1998 large coastal shark population assessment to an independent scientific review and act in accordance with the results. If the science was upheld, there was to be no summer large coastal shark fishery.

"The quota cut is crucial to stem further declines in depleted large coastal shark populations and begin rebuilding periods that will take decades," remarked Dr. Merry Camhi, Assistant Director of the Living Oceans Program at the National Audubon Society. "It's time to err on the side of caution. We are simply asking NMFS to delay the opening of the fishery until the results of the scientific review are made public."

Scientists who participated in the 1998 assessment have warned that, without the quota reductions, large coastal sharks as a group may decline as much as 13% each year, increasing the time to rebuild to a level that can support a viable fishery as well as the risk that the population may never recover. Because sharks have an extremely limited reproductive potential, the fishery reopening will have long-term, negative consequences on their populations.

"The Fisheries Service has failed the sharks and the public by neglecting to ensure the timely completion of the review or even negotiate a default clause in case of delay," stated David Wilmot, Director of the Ocean Wildlife Campaign. "With this debacle, they have not only squandered taxpayer dollars, but risked the recovery of some of the ocean's most vulnerable animals."

Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they grow slowly, mature late and produce a small number of young. The population of sandbar sharks has declined by as much as 80% percent since the late 1970s due to long-term overfishing. Similarly severe depletion of the large coastal dusky shark led to a recent prohibition on fishing for the species. Dusky sharks - now considered a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act - will however continue to be killed incidentally in the large coastal shark fishery.

For more information, or to contact The Ocean Conservancy, see their website at: www.oceanconservancy.org