Fishing nations at the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) have once again failed to adopt scientific advice and best practices to safeguard several species of oceanic sharks. Unprecedented support for stronger ICCAT finning ban was quashed. Mako & blue shark catches remain unlimited. A small step taken for threatened porbeagles.

The number of co-sponsors in an ongoing effort to strengthen the ICCAT ban on “finning” (slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea) more than doubled to an unprecedented 30 of 50 Parties, yet was quashed by Japan with support from Korea, and China. Japan also led the fight to kill EU proposals aimed at protecting common threshers and limiting catch of makos, while its attempt to raise proposed blue shark catch levels prevented consensus on that measure. The only shark measure agreed was a compromise between Canada and the EU aimed at conserving porbeagle sharks.

“We are deeply troubled that sound conservation proposals for exceptionally vulnerable sharks continue to be defeated at ICCAT, even as mandates, warnings, and public concerns grow stronger,” said Sonja Fordham, President of Shark Advocates International, a project of The Ocean Foundation. “This inaction is particularly heartbreaking with respect to the proposal for a stronger shark finning ban, which was thwarted despite co-sponsorship from a majority of ICCAT Parties.”

To read more go to:

http://www.projectaware.org/update/japan-blocks-4-out-5-shark-conservation-proposals-atlantic-tuna-meeting?utm_source=newsflash&utm_medium=engagingnetworks&utm_content=awareupdate-iccatpr&utm_campaign=sharks

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