Sustainable Shark Fisheries? Yup!

Sustainable Shark Fisheries?

Kudos to Canada and The Marine Stewardship Council for exploring sustainable shark fisheries. It's an anathema to many within the shark conservation movement to even consider sustainable shark fishing.

In reality this weeks announcement is an arrow in the quiver of a total global approach to shark fisheries.

We cannot rely on bans, set aside areas, and tourism to complete the shark management story. Somewhere shark fisheries will have to be part of the equation.

In Canada the first step to shark management has begun.

Complete story in the Vancouver Sun.

Sharks - the Science - the Success!

Over in Fiji Da Shark and his entire team have a lot to be proud of when it comes to templates for sustainable and research interactive commercial shark sites - they have written the book.

We'll let Da Shark tell it in a blog post from today:

The section about Shark Tourism fascinates me.

Here are the numbers for our Sharks, in Fiji Dollars. One FJD is worth fifty US cents.

• The yearly turnover of Beqa Adventure Divers is FJD 1,100,000 (of which FJD 45,000/year marine park levy), all of which gets re-invested in country. Add to that the ancillary revenues in the tourism industry (airline tickets, transfers, accommodation, meals, souvenirs, excursions etc) and assume that the ratio is 1:2 (which is very conservative!) = FJD 2,200,000, gives a total of FJD 3,300,000.


• We work with approx 100 Sharks, meaning that every Shark contributes FJD 33,000 to the Fiji economy - not once but per year!
  


• Assuming that on average, a Shark will live for 20 years (less for Whitetips, more for Bulls), then the value of one Shark on our Shark dive is FJD 660,000.


• Our competitors work with the same Sharks. Assuming that their cash flow is similar to ours, one can double the above numbers.
  

Pretty darn impressive huh!

New research plan provides a blueprint for addressing shark issues in the western and central Pacific

Good reading for anyone who's in the shark conservation business.

If international commercial fisheries have no solid idea what regional shark stocks look like, how do we begin the process of evaluating effective conservation initiatives and sustainable fisheries?

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has taken a major step toward addressing concerns about shark populations with initial approval of a three-year Shark Research Plan by its Scientific Committee.

The plan will be led by the Oceanic Fisheries Programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, and will contain assessment, research coordination and fishery statistics improvement components. The overall aim of the plan is to evaluate the status of blue, mako, oceanic whitetip, silky and thresher sharks in the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) and to establish better datasets to support future assessments. Following its recent endorsement by the Scientific Committee, the Shark Research Plan will be presented for full Commission approval at its annual meeting in Hawaii in December.

This article outlines the background and context of shark issues in the WCPO, introduces the key species and previews the forthcoming assessment work.

Sharks are among the species to be managed by regional tuna fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) but little has been done worldwide by these organisations to manage shark catches. In fact, because so few national fisheries catch reporting systems record sharks, RFMOs often lack sufficient data upon which to draw conclusions about the status of shark stocks. At the same time, there are increasing concerns about fisheries targeting sharks and about continued growth in the shark fin trade. In the WCPO, two species of sharks are categorised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as globally endangered and another sixteen as globally vulnerable and it is not difficult to predict that catch limits may, in future, be required to safeguard some stocks. The current challenge facing the WCPFC is to find the proper balance between shark conservation and utilisation, given the considerable uncertainty regarding the current status of stocks.

Complete Research Plan.

California Shark Fishing and the IGFA

As a commercial shark diving operator and a shark conservationist I am unsure how long the IGFA can continue to run with a catch and kill model for record holding with sharks.

It would seem easy enough to apply a set of new catch and release standards for records that were incentivised by the fishing industry. Perhaps if the IGFA added a new category with an iPhone app that allowed fishermen to instantly record and send in their virtual catches...at sea?

The IGFA will soon find themselves in direct conflict with a host of newer and more activist shark conservation groups should they choose to stick to catch and kill modelling with sharks.

The ocean environment of 2010 is a different place from 1939 when the IGFA came into existence.

Perhaps now is the time for new thinking, and new directions?

Video here.

Shark revenge? If you scream like a Girl/Monkey it is.

Currently making the rounds. The fisherman get's points for trying to recover his gear from the sharks mouth. Loses same points for screaming like a girl/monkey when he is bitten.

Coffee Warning: Do not watch this video with any hot liquids in your hand.

Oceana - End Run for Fisheries G-20

NGO Oceana is going for what amounts to an "end run" to limit fisheries in the G-20 nations.

As it turns out many of these unsustainable fisheries are made sustainable due to heavy fishing subsidies, money from governments that all but guarantee price stabilization and do not allow for markets to correct when fisheries become unsustainable.

Any movement on this front would benefit sharks and after the stunning losses at Doha we're supporting any continuing efforts to reign in unsustainable fisheries take.

Mission Blue features an all star cast of voices from the marine and conservation worlds demanding changes at the next G-20 summit meeting:

“Subsidies encourage unsustainable operations, accelerating the depletion and ultimate demise of fish and fishermen alike. No fish, no fishermen.” said Dr. Sylvia Earle. “A new commitment to fisheries would demonstrate that G-20 can contribute to solving environmental problems of global consequence while fulfilling its shared responsibility for the economy and well-being for people of the world."

To get involved and to get informed please spend some time today to review the following press release.

Re purposing shark fisheries - Mexico

We have long been advocates of re purposed shark fisheries. As is the case in Holbox, Mexico where many of the local shark fishermen now take paying tourists to see whale sharks.

In the past 5 years this unique site has gone from a regional coastal shark fishing hub to a multi million dollar shark tourism mecca.

Worldwide coastal shark fisheries can be re purposed to service a growing $300 million dollar commercial shark diving industry, but time is running out.

The dollars and sense of re purposed shark fisheries make sense for local and regional economies. Fishermen typically make a few dollars per pound of sharks fin and meat.

Commercial shark diving delivers from $40-80 per diver, sustainably.

This week a feature story about the human cost of shark fisheries was highlighted in a great article by Kevin Sieff in The Texas Observer.

We can re purpose shark fisheries, easily, and quickly with some political will and a little bit of vision. Sustainable tourism is as simple as making a cell phone ring and it will be up to our industry to lead the way:

“They’re fishing in a prime habitat for juvenile sandbar and blacktip sharks,” says Karyl Brewster-Geisz, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who produced a 15-page report on illegal shark fishing along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2005. “And unlike the U.S., where permits are issued for particular species,” she says, fishermen in Playa Bagdad “take whatever they can get.”

Scientists say a growing trade in shark fins is depleting shark populations around the globe and disrupting ecosystems long dependent on the predator’s presence. On the Texas-Mexico border, shark fishing threatens more than the environment. “This is our sovereignty we’re trying to protect,” says Lt. Mickey Lalor, commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s South Padre Island station. “These are our resources. These are our waters.”



Complete Story