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Canada is piggybacking off a proposal by Senegal in an attempt to save the endangered shortfin mako shark.
Earlier this week, just days ahead of an international fisheries meeting, Canada signed on to a proposal by the West African nation that would ban the retention of the species by fishing vessels.
The proposal is being debated over the next week by 53 member nations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in Mallorca, Spain.
Shannon Arnold, senior co-ordinator of the marine program with the Halifax-based Ecology Action Center, is in Mallorca for the meetings, which wrap up on Monday. She said despite Canada’s efforts to protect the species, it still ranked sixth among all ICCAT countries in 2018 for shortfin mako catch. |
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“We do have fisheries that catch mako shark as a bycatch — so, while they're trying to catch swordfish and tuna, they're also catching different types of shark. One of them is mako,” Arnold said.
“It’s one of the more endangered and vulnerable sharks that we have in the Atlantic, and it’s just taken a nosedive ... so, that’s why we're here trying to get some limits on it.”
According to a DFO fact sheet, the shortfin mako can be found from Argentina and the Gulf of Mexico to Browns Bank, along the continental shelf of Nova Scotia and even into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Managing bycatch numbers
The mako shark is classified as endangered internationally and Canada’s Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) reassessed the shark as endangered earlier this year.
In August, Canada supported international trade measures on the species at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Two years ago, ICCAT members decided to make it so that targeted mako fishing was prohibited and fishers had to release any live bycatch. Arnold said that didn't quite work.
While fishers can’t directly target mako, Arnold said they’re allowed to keep any dead fish they catch as part of their other fishing activities, and it’s not illegal to buy or sell mako shark. It’s also a valuable species sought after for meat, fins and sport.
“There's a very big market for them, they’re economically important, so people want to land them,” said Arnold. |
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