Sharks have been swimming the world’s oceans for more than 400 million years. While they have survived mass extinction events, sharks have not evolved to withstand overexploitation by humans. These top predators are in serious trouble due to heavy fishing pressure, shark finning and bycatch. Of the 307 shark species assessed by the International Union for Conservation … Read more
Oceana denounces that the management of tuna and sharks fisheries is insufficient. Today, the majority of commercially important tuna stocks are overfished, some to the point of commercial collapse, and several shark species caught in fisheries are classified as Endangered or Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This week … Read more
Oceana calls for regulation of high-seas shark fisheries, as these vulnerable species lack any management measures in international waters despite being highly exploited. Delegates from the international marine conservation organization are attending the Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) meeting taking place this week in San Sebastian, Spain, whose aim is to discuss the failures in … Read more
Europe is playing a lead role in the overfishing, waste, and depletion of the world’s sharks. Despite improved management instruments and growing public concern, European Union (EU) restrictions on shark finning remain among the weakest in the world and no overall plan to manage EU shark fisheries and restore depleted populations exists. Because of sharks’ … Read more
Oceana is expressing its support for a proposal by Germany to list two shark species, the porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus) and spurdog (Squalus acanthias), on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This recommendation is one of many in a new report published by the international marine … Read more
Oceana calls for regulation of high-seas shark fisheries, as these vulnerable species lack any management measures in international waters despite being highly exploited. Delegates from the international marine conservation organization are attending the Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) meeting taking place this week in San Sebastian, Spain, whose aim is to discuss the failures in … Read more
Oceana is pleased that the European Union countries have agreed to submit Germany’s proposals on sharks to the CITES Conference of the Parties next year. These proposals are to list the spurdog (Squalus acanthias) and porbeagle (Lamna nasus) sharks on Appendix II of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna … Read more
Traditionally, sharks were considered as bycatch in fisheries for highly migratory species like tuna and swordfish. That has changed. Pelagic sharks are now the targeted species of the European Union surface longline fleets. Spain possesses, by far, the biggest European longline fleet. The Spanish longliners’ catch in the Atlantic Ocean consists of more than 67 … Read more
Most of the pelagic (open water) sharks caught worldwide by European Union vessels come from the fisheries of modern Spanish and Portuguese surface longliner fleets which target them. In 2004, EU vessels reported 114,669 metric tons of shark and ray catches worldwide. More than 67 per cent of total shark catches in the Atlantic were … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
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