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February 25, 2009

A European Blueprint for Sharks

Humane Society International/Europe

By Rebecca Regnery

Update: In December 2010, the IUCN released a report calling for an EU ban on removing shark fins at sea. The study was undertaken to contribute to the debate on weaknesses in the EU finning regulations, which continues.

The European Commission recently released its shark conservation plan, providing the European Union’s member countries with a long overdue blueprint for protecting vulnerable sharks for all EU vessels and for all vessels in EU waters.  

The Community Action Plan [PDF] for sharks (CPOA) aims to improve data collection and decrease the alarming decline in shark populations by reducing pressures caused by overfishing, incidental catch (bycatch) and shark finning.

Background and next steps

In 1999, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization adopted an International Plan of Action for Sharks which called on countries to create National Plans of Action for Sharks to curb the rapid depletion of shark populations. The European Commission created a Community Plan of Action in lieu of each European Union (EU) member country creating its own National Plan. Like the National Plans produced by non-EU countries, the Community Plan is voluntary.

EU countries will now evaluate the Plan and create “Council Conclusions” on the Plan, which will be adopted next April.

Will the CPOA help sharks?

Humane Society International joins fellow members of the Shark Alliance, a coalition of non-governmental organizations working together to achieve stronger shark conservation measures in Europe, in praising [PDF] the CPOA for its measures to improve data collection and population assessments, to address overfishing and bycatch, and to improve education and public awareness. To achieve these goals, the Council Conclusions must be supportive of the Plan and implementation must be rapid and thorough.

However, Humane Society International and the Shark Alliance are concerned that the Plan does not do nearly enough to protect particularly vulnerable species such as spiny dogfish and porbeagle sharks, and that its ban on shark finning is weak and full of loopholes.

The best way to prevent shark finning is to require that sharks are landed with fins naturally attached to bodies, rather than slicing the fins off at sea, which creates a regulatory nightmare and makes it easy to cheat. A “fins-attached” policy also improves species identification and data collection. Unfortunately, the Plan allows for vessels to obtain special permits to cut fins off at sea. The provision for such permits should be removed as country adopts its own regulations.

Take action

Because this is a plan and not a regulation, EU member states are free to decide whether or not to adopt measures domestically in line with or stronger than the Plan. European citizens can urge their government to support the Plan and to adopt stronger regulations such reducing quotas, adopting a fins-attached regulation, and eliminating the special permit exception.