The future of UK blue shark angling looks a little more secure after ICCAT (the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which also manages shark species) agreed science-based catch limits for both southern and northern blue shark stocks for the first time.

The limits cap the amount of blue sharks that can be landed and will help to prevent overfishing of blue sharks which have recovered over recent years. This has led to a thriving recreational fishery in Cornwall after many years of decline and a near total absence of blue sharks in the 2000s due to commercial overfishing.

Anglers and charter skippers have tagged thousands of blue sharks over the years in order to improve our understanding of shark populations in UK waters. Catch data from a recreational angling tagging programme in Ireland was even used by ICCAT to derive their 2015 stock assessment. Many of the tagged sharks have been recaptured and killed off the Azores or in the Bay of Biscay by the Spanish longline fleet demonstrating how important international agreements are to successfully manage blue sharks and how susceptible the UK’s recreational blue shark fishery – which brings millions of pounds in tourism revenue to coastal communities – is to commercial fishing.

While the news for blue sharks was positive the outlook for mako sharks is bleaker than ever. The EU and USA prioritised short term fishing interests and blocked calls by other ICCAT members for a ban on retaining short fin makos which are now critically endangered in the Atlantic.  Both the EU and USA undermined international conservation efforts by calling for exceptions allowing hundreds of tons of makos to continue to be landed.

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