Saving Seafood

A proposal to ban killing sharks in Hawaii waters is gaining steam

February 12, 2019 — Capturing, taking, abusing or killing a shark in Hawaii waters would be illegal, under a Senate bill quickly gaining support.

The measure also expands a ban on killing manta rays to all rays in state waters.

Senate Bill 489 has the support of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Humane Society, and a number of environmental groups.

Violators of the proposal would face fines of $500 for a first offense and $10,000 for a third offense.

The islands are already at the forefront of enacting protections for sharks, but some say more work is needed to safeguard the animals at a time when the health of the world’s oceans is in decline.

Sharks and rays “are long-living and slow-growing, start reproducing at an advanced age, and produce relatively few offspring per year,” the measure before lawmakers says.

“Protection for sharks and rays ultimately means healthier, more resilient oceans and reefs that are better able to withstand other pressures on the ocean ecosystem from climate change and pollution.”

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

Illegal trade in shark products dismissed by UK fish and chip industry

February 7, 2019 — University of Exeter researchers, studying the DNA of shark products sold in fishmongers, fish and chip shops, and Asian wholesalers in England, believe they have uncovered serious cases of mislabeling and a potential trade in critically endangered species.

However, their findings have been largely dismissed by the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF), which said in a statement that the fish sold in fish and chip outlets is all legally sourced.

The scientists found that 90 percent of products sold at fish and chip shops under umbrella terms such as huss, rock salmon, and rock eel, were actually spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). Landings of this fish into the European Union by E.U. and third-country vessels have been prohibited from the Northeast Atlantic since 2011 because it is classified as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species.

Other species identified include blue sharks, Pacific spiny dogfish, nursehounds, and starry smoothounds, most of which are not in threatened categories, but they only made up a small minority of the samples.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Forcing Other Countries To Ban Shark Finning: A Bipartisan Conservation Bill Back In Congress

February 5, 2019 — During the George W. Bush administration, American furniture makers had a crippling disadvantage. While American timber was tightly regulated, foreign supplies had no limitations on where their wood originated from, and could engage in destructive practices and undercut U.S. companies.

President Bush solved that by modernizing the Lacey Act, which was the conservation brainchild of Republicans a century earlier and had been modified a few times since. Under the new law, if a supplier could not show a legitimate trail of legal acquisition, it simply could not come into the U.S.

Modern fisheries have the same import problem, plus a domestic perception one.(1) When it comes to products like shark, American fishers have one set of rules, and it has created the most sustainable program on earth, but importation is a free-for-all. The Magnuson-Stevens Act means responsible shark management but in other countries shark finning is all too common

The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019, H.R. 788, mandates the same science-based management standards for imported products that American fishermen use. The program this bill has been modeled after has worked well for sea turtles and other marine mammals.  Though it is a Republican bill, its support is bipartisan, rare enough for modern politics, but it is also supported by non-profit education organizations like Science 2.0. and the fishing industry, non-ban-happy conservation groups, aquariums and zoos. It almost sounds impossible to have such a diverse consensus, but there it is.

Read the full story at Science 2.0

Reintroduced Shark Trade Bill Promotes Successful U.S. Conservation Policies at Global Level

Bill incentivizes nations to follow U.S. example of successful management

January 31, 2019 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the Sustainable Shark Alliance:

A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House advances global shark conservation by ensuring that all shark and ray products imported into the United States meet the same high ethical and sustainability standards required of American fishermen. The bill has broad support from conservation groups, zoos, aquariums and the fishing industry.  A companion bill is expected soon in the Senate; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a similar bill in the last Congress.

The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019 (SSFTA), H.R. 788, introduced by Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), and co-sponsored by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Bill Posey (R-FL), José Serrano (D-NY), among others, creates a transparent certification program for countries seeking to import shark products into the United States, modeled on similar laws that protect sea turtles and marine mammals across the globe. Similar legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate.

Nations wishing to take advantage of the U.S. market for shark and ray products must prove they have an effective prohibition on the reprehensible and wasteful practice of shark finning, and have shark and ray management policies comparable to those under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Unlike legislation (H.R. 737) from Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-NMI), which bans all trade of shark fins in the United States, the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act creates incentives for improving shark conservation globally. The SSFTA punishes bad actors in other parts of the world while allowing responsible fishermen in the U.S. and elsewhere to realize the maximum value of their carefully managed and scientifically limited annual catch.

“Fishing is a long-standing profession and treasured American pastime, and particularly important in Florida,” said Rep. Webster. “Our responsibility is to balance the needs of the industry with conservation. This bill recognizes the sacrifices American fishermen have made to rebuild and sustain our shark populations and calls on others to meet these same high standards.”

“We thank the Congressmen for introducing the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act,” said Tad Mask, regional director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association in Tallahassee, Florida. “The bill promotes shark conservation and the successful model of American shark management, without threatening law-abiding U.S. fishermen.”

“The idea of a fin ban comes as a first step in environmental groups ultimate goal of ending all shark fishing,” said Greg DiDomenico, director of the Garden State Seafood Association. “The same groups pushing Rep. Sablan’s bill are also calling for an end to shark fishing tournaments.  Supporting sensible shark conservation measures, like Rep. Webster’s, should be a common goal of the commercial and recreational fishing communities.”

U.S. shark fisheries are among the best managed in the world. In a paper published last year, Dr. David Shiffman, a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Simon Fraser University, and Dr. Robert Hueter, Director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory, wrote that the U.S. “has some of the most sustainable shark fisheries on Earth” and called the U.S. “a model of successful management.”

Shark finning, the cruel practice of removing a shark’s fins at sea and discarding the rest of the shark, has been banned in the United States with industry support since the 1990s. Currently, when a shark is landed, the fins are left naturally attached.

The Sustainable Shark Alliance has long argued for the importance of obtaining the maximum value by fully utilizing the limited catches U.S. fishermen are allowed. A U.S. ban on the sale of fins deprives coastal communities of much needed income, while mandating waste of a valuable and culturally important resource.

“The answer to the problem of shark finning is not ‘reverse shark finning,’ by destroying the shark fins that are legally harvested,” said the Alliance’s counsel, Shaun Gehan. “It is to stop shark overfishing and waste of much needed shark protein in all the world’s shark fisheries. The SSFTA moves us in that direction.”

Prior versions of the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act have been supported by commercial fishing industry groups, including but not limited to the Garden State Seafood Association, Southeastern Fisheries Association, North Carolina Fisheries Association, Directed Sustainable Fisheries, and Louisiana Shrimp Association; environmental groups, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society; and zoo and aquarium facilities, such as Mote Marine Laboratory, Palm Beach Zoo, SeaWorld, Zoo Miami Foundation and the Florida Aquarium. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has also written in support of approach.

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance
The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) is a coalition of shark fishermen and seafood dealers that advocates for sustainable U.S. shark fisheries and supports well-managed and healthy shark populations. The SSA stands behind U.S. shark fisheries as global leaders in successful shark management and conservation.

MSC to include ghost gear, shark finning, endangered species in standard review

January 25, 2019 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)’s board of trustees has confirmed a list of 16 topics that will be reviewed in the next stage of its fisheries standard review.

In addition to the topics to be included in the standard review, the MSC board has approved topics for more immediate public consultation. These include a consultation on shark finning as part of the MSC’s scope requirements in early March 2019, concluding in early 2020.

The full standard review list incorporates feedback received from numerous stakeholders and includes consideration of the MSC’s requirements for ghost gear, low trophic species, shark finning and endangered threatened and protected (ETP) species, it said. It also covers topics relating to the accessibility of the MSC program to small scale, squid, crab and octopus fisheries.

“The next stage in the MSC fisheries standard review will be an in-depth analysis of all topics agreed for review,” said Rupert Howes, MSC CEO. “Over the next year, the MSC will work alongside stakeholders to harness their expertise and experience to identify potential updates to the standard. This is an opportunity for stakeholders to inform the future development of the standard. We encourage anyone with knowledge or an interest in these areas to get in touch.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Fishing crew charged with shark fin trafficking

December 12, 2018 — The owner and officers of a Japanese-flagged fishing vessel were charged in federal court Tuesday with aiding and abetting the trafficking and smuggling of nearly 1,000 shark fins into and out of Hawaii last month.

During a year-long tuna-fishing expedition, the crew of a Japanese fishing boat —the M.V. Kyoshin Maru No. 20 — allegedly harvested fins from about 300 sharks, at least some species of which are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

One of those species, the oceanic white tip shark, has declined in population by about 80-95 percent across the Pacific Ocean since the mid-1990s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, the crew cut the shark fins off, “in some instances while the sharks were stunned but still alive, and discarded the finless carcasses into the ocean,” all under the supervision of the captain and at the direction of the ship’s officers.

The illegally-harvested fins were discovered in the luggage of 10 Indonesian nationals, who had been employed as fishermen on the boat. The Indonesian fishermen had been dropped off from the fishing boat at a port in Honolulu and were intending to catch a flight to Jakarta.

Read the full story at The Garden Island

Bill banning shark fin sales advances in New Jersey legislature

November 27, 2018 — A bill banning the sale of shark fins in New Jersey waters has advanced in the state legislature.

On Monday, the Senate Energy and Environment Committee unanimously passed bill S2905, which prohibits the possession and sale of shark fins. Sponsored by Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D., Burlington), the bill is meant to prevent New Jersey from contributing to the international shark fin trade.

Shark finning, seen in some Asian countries, is a practice in which fishermen pull sharks out of the water, slice their fins off and discard them back into the sea alive but unable to swim. The fins are used to make shark-fin soup, a Chinese delicacy.

“The goal is not to interfere with legal shark fishing but to not participate in the importation of shark fins that disregard where or how the fins were obtained,” said Alea Couch, policy coordinator for the assemblyman.

Environmental groups say it has contributed to a decline in the shark population over last few decades. According to estimates published in the Marine Policy Journal, 100 million sharks are killed each year.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

War on sharks: How rogue fishing fleets plunder the ocean’s top predator

August 8, 2018 –It was billed as the biggest poaching bust in history, a monumental win for conservationists.

An Ecuadorean Navy patrol vessel, guided by advanced radar and a small plane, bore down on a ship the length of a football field making a beeline across the Galapagos Marine Reserve—probably the most fiercely protected waters in the world. Filling the freighter’s freezers: 150 tons of dead , most of them endangered and illegal to sell.

Only small pieces off those 6,000 carcasses were actually of much value. The fins.

Shark fins are a delicacy in China, the feature ingredient in an expensive soup served at banquets and fancy restaurants. At peak, dried fins have sold for more per pound than heroin. That price, coupled with high demand from a booming Chinese economy, has created a brutally efficient industry capable of strip-mining sharks from the sea.

With fishing lines over 75 miles long, commercial shark fishermen catch hundreds of sharks in a single try. Tens of millions of sharks are fished from the world’s oceans every year, and some scientists have estimated that number to be over 100 million.

“The amount of sharks that we are pulling in all over the world, it seems insane that there should be any left at all,” said shark conservationist Ben Harris, director of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Panama Chapter.

Shark poaching happens everywhere, from Florida to French Polynesia, but it’s the Pacific Ocean off Central America that has become ground zero in the battle to protect sharks. Even here—by many measures the richest shark waters on the planet—biologists fear relentless overfishing could spiral populations of the most sought-after species into irreversible collapse and take the entire marine food chain down with them.

The big question has become which will disappear first—sharks or the shark fin trade.

“It’s a very close race right now,” said Harris, who has spent decades in small speedboats chasing shark poachers out of Central American marine reserves.

This two-year investigation first published by “Reveal,” a radio show and podcast supported by the Center for Investigative Reporting, found that despite stricter protections enacted by many coastal countries, international trade in shark products remains strong in the Eastern Pacific. Reporting in port towns across five countries from Ecuador to El Salvador showed in some cases new laws intended to curb the slaughter of sharks appear to have had the opposite effect.

Read the full story from the Miami Herald at PHYS.org

Scientists Urge Congress to Support Ongoing Shark Research

July 19, 2018 — Fishermen and beachgoers alike have long viewed sharks with something less than admiration, but advances in technology have proven they are deeply valuable, scientists told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Yet that value could be lost if climate change and overfishing continue to threaten the predator and its habitat.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee heard testimony from several scientists about the value of shark research during a Wednesday morning session.

Among them was Dr. Robert Hueter, of the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida, who said he’s studied sharks for 40 years and that his most satisfying moments have come when he’s gotten to watch people shift from vilifying sharks to appreciating them.

“Now I see people on the coast watching sharks with tags swim by,” Hueter said. “They don’t want to kill them but instead, they’re rooting them on and sometimes, they even [figuratively] adopt them. They understand the shark isn’t looking to eat people but they’re doing what they have done for millions of years. We’re winning the battle [for conservation] and activism is spreading, so it’s very exciting.”

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Senators share their fascination with sharks at hearing

July 19, 2018 — Lawmakers on Wednesday held a hearing on sharks to examine new research, conservation techniques and ways to improve understanding of the unique animals.

The hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, titled simply “SHARKS!,” featured experts in shark research who told lawmakers how their discoveries are benefiting the medical and tech fields.

“Americans have been fascinated by sharks,” said Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.). “Aquariums and other educational programs have helped to demystify sharks and our initial fear has turned into fandom.”

The hearing also comes just before the start of The Discovery Channel’s 30th annual “Shark Week,” which is set to begin July 22.

Dr. Robert Hueter, the senior scientist and director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., credited the annual television event with leading to a better understanding of the complex creatures.

Americans are now “rooting the shark on,” Hueter said.

“They understand that that shark is not really threatening them, they’re not looking for people, that they’re there trying to do their thing and they’ve been there for millions of years,” Hueter said.

Read the full story at The Hill