Saving Seafood

Great whites attracted by plentiful seal populations in Maine waters

July 29, 2020 — Monday’s fatal shark attack off Harpswell is the result of rebounding great white shark and seal populations along the Maine coast, experts say.

The attack on Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, was the first fatal shark attack in the state’s history. A diver was attacked off Eastport in 2010, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File, but he was not injured and fended off a porbeagle shark with his video camera.

Seal populations have grown since a 1972 law barred killing of marine mammals and white shark numbers have been rebounding for two decades as a result of a rule that said fishermen could no longer kill the fearsome predators, a shark expert based in Massachusetts said.

Gregory Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries dismissed speculation that warming water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine might be enticing more great whites to the state’s coastline.

He said the sharks always have been frequent visitors to Maine waters, but that growing seal populations might be drawing them closer to the shore. Seals are a favorite food of the great white, he said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Sharks are “functionally extinct” from many of the world’s reefs, new global survey finds

July 28, 2020 — Sharks are absent on many of the world’s coral reefs, suggesting that they are “too rare to fulfill their normal role in the ecosystem, and have become ‘functionally extinct,’” according to a new landmark study.

Conducted by Global FinPrint and published in the journal Nature, the study involved surveying 371 reefs in 58 countries. Sharks were not found on nearly 20 percent of reefs, “indicating a widespread decline that has gone undocumented on this scale until now,” Global FinPrint said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Shark fin stories by major media ‘misleading’: Q&A with David Shiffman

July 14, 2020 — If there’s one thing most of the public knows about shark conservation, it’s that they’re under siege by global fleets of vessels that scoop them up, cut off their fins and deposit them back into the ocean to drown, a cruel practice known as shark finning.

But what if that practice, while real, isn’t the singular threat it’s made out to be?

“There are many threats facing sharks, but one, which is not the biggest threat, gets the most attention,” says David Shiffman, a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University who studies shark conservation.

An analysis of ten years’ worth of media reports, published in June by Shiffman et al in the open-access journal iScience, shows that two-thirds of all articles about threats to sharks focused on finning and the trade in shark fins — two separate issues that are conflated so frequently, write the authors, that “it was impossible to tease these two threats apart.”

A more pressing threat, overfishing, was mentioned in just four of ten articles. Recreational fishing for sharks, which the authors call an emerging threat, only made it into a tenth of the articles.

Critically endangered sharks, meanwhile, got a tiny fraction of the attention of the better-known species, like great white sharks. They showed up just 20 times in nearly 2,000 articles.

The result of the skewed media coverage, Shiffman says, is that “a concerned citizen learning about this important issue from newspapers would be badly misinformed,” which could lead them to support policies that, at best, won’t work.

Mongabay reached Shiffman over email for an interview that’s been edited lightly for length and clarity.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Agreement Reached To Protect Dwindling Shark Species

July 2, 2020 — A threatened shark species is poised to see new protections against overfishing under a deal with federal officials, conservation groups and a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner, according to Earthjustice.

More than 300,000 oceanic whitetip sharks have died as bycatch in commercial fishing nets off Hawaii and American Samoa since 2013, and the species is believed to have declined by as much as 95% since the mid-1990s, according to a release from the nonprofit law organization.

It’s been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act — but it’s never been designated as “overfished,” the release stated.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

Call for data and information – EFH Review for Pacific Coast Highly Migratory Species

July 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center have initiated a review of essential fish habitat (EFH) provisions in the Pacific Coast Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP).  This call for data and information is intended to support the review.

The HMS FMP, its EFH provisions, and maps can be found on the Council’s HMS webpage, under “Key Documents”.  The HMS FMP includes the following species:

  • Sharks: common thresher, shortfin mako, blue
  • Tunas: albacore, bigeye, Pacific bluefin, skipjack, yellowfin
  • Striped marlin
  • Broadbill swordfish
  • Dorado

Fishery management plans are required to identify and describe EFH for each life stage and species, identify and minimize impacts from fishing and non-fishing activities, and identify research needs, among other requirements.  A complete description of EFH provisions to be included in FMPs can be found in the EFH regulatory guidance at 50 CFR§600.815(a).  Information and data should be relevant to:

  • The habitat needs, associations and distribution FMP species listed above
  • Major prey items of species listed above
  • Adverse impacts on EFH from fishing activities and potential minimization measures
  • Adverse impacts on EFH from non-fishing activities and potential minimization measures
  • Research and information needs

Information and data sources can include published scientific literature, unpublished scientific reports, information from interested parties, and previously unavailable or inaccessible data.

Information relevant to the HMS EFH review should be submitted to Nicole Nasby-Lucas (nicole.nasby-lucas@noaa.gov) no later than Monday July 13th, 2020.  For further information, please contact Kerry Griffin (kerry.griffin@noaa.gov).

How media mistakes threaten global shark survival

June 19, 2020 — The following was released by Arizona State University:

Sharks are among the most threatened animals in the world, and more people than ever now want to help. But a deep analysis of news coverage of shark conservation issues over 10 years reveals an alarming pattern of inaccurate reporting. This misinformation results in broad misunderstandings of the true issues among both media consumers and policymakers.

David Shiffman, a marine conservation biologist at Arizona State University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, led a team that analyzed nearly 2,000 media articles dating back to 2008. The analysis reveals that worldwide media coverage of shark conservation topics is biased and inaccurate, omitting or misrepresenting key facts and not reporting on expert-backed solutions that have scientific data demonstrating their effectiveness.

“Sharks face many threats, and there are many available policy solutions to address those threats. However, you wouldn’t know that from reading newspaper coverage of this important and complex issue,” Shiffman said.

Examples of media misinformation include an overemphasis of threats, such as the shark fin trade verses the shark meat trade, which is a major and growing threat that’s less well understood. This skew in coverage has led in part to shark fin trade bans despite no evidence that these trade bans actually help sharks. The research notes that shark finning has been illegal in the United States since the 1990s, an important point that is often confused in media coverage of these issues.

Read the full release here

Retention Limit of Aggregated Large Coastal Shark and Hammerhead Shark Management Groups increase to 55 Sharks per Trip

June 19, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

NOAA Fisheries has increased the retention limit for the commercial aggregated large coastal shark (LCS) and hammerhead shark management groups (see Appendix 1 next page) for directed shark limited access permit holders in the Atlantic region from 36 to 55 sharks per vessel per trip effective June 19, 2020. The retention limit will remain at 55 LCS other than sandbar sharks per vessel per trip in the Atlantic region through the rest of the 2020 fishing season or until NOAA Fisheries announces another adjustment to the retention limit or a fishery closure via the Federal Register.

As agreed upon by the Commission’s Coastal Sharks Management Board, the Commission will follow NOAA Fisheries for in-season changes to the commercial retention limit, therefore, no more than 55 sharks per vessel per trip may be retained from the aggregated LCS and hammerhead management groups by a state licensed fishermen effective June 19, 2020.

The Federal Register will be published on June 22 athttps://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/22/2020-13373/atlantic-highly-migratory-species-commercial-aggregated-large-coastal-shark-and-hammerhead-shark. Shark landings can be found at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/atlantic-highly-migratory-species/2020-atlantic-shark-commercial-fishery-landings-and-retention.

Please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0723 orkrootes-murdy@asmfc.org for more information.

A PDF of the announcement can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5eed1303AdjustedCommericalRetentionLimits_June2020_1.pdf.

 

Shark fin smugglers using coronavirus as cover to ramp up illegal shipments into Hong Kong

June 12, 2020 — Conservationists in Hong Kong remain puzzled by the scale of record illegal shark fin shipments into the city this year, at a time when overall consumption is down.

The two consecutive shark fin shipments, totaling 26 metric tons (MT) and valued at HKD 8.6 million (USD 1.1 million, EUR 950,000), were seized by the Hong Kong Customs on 28 April and 4 May. An estimated 38,500 sharks were killed for the fins seized in Hong Kong, mostly from the thresher and silky shark, whose trade is regulated under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix II. None of the required permits accompanied the shark fins seized in Hong Kong.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seizure of 26 tonnes shark fin shipments from Ecuador largest in Hong Kong history

May 18, 2020 — Hong Kong customs officials have seized 26 tonnes of shark fins, taken from 38,500 endangered sharks, which were uncovered in two shipping containers from Ecuador, it was revealed on May 6th, 2020.

The two consignments doubled the amount seized last year, and were worth HK$8.6 million (US$1.1 million).  The majority of the dried fins were from thresher and silky shark species, both of which are protected.

“It’s shocking to see such a big smuggling case in the city,” said Gloria Lai Pui-yin, Senior Conservation Officer, Sustainability at WWF-Hong Kong. “The two species of shark in the recent seizures – the thresher shark and silky shark – are both threatened species and listed on Appendix II of CITES, meaning that the international trade of these fins is controlled. WWF-Hong Kong has been working for over a decade to transform Hong Kong into a shark-fin free city by expanding our no carriage policy and ‘no shark fin’ corporate pledge. We need to remain vigilant and ensure there is better oversight in the city.”

Officers told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that they were suspicious of the shipments because the containers had Spanish-language markings identifying them as dried fish.

Read the full story at Oceanographic