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Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Rejects Shark Conservation Policies

Posted on March 24, 2011 By David Shiffman 1 Comment on Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Rejects Shark Conservation Policies
Conservation, Science

Last week, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission held their annual meeting in Sri Lanka. As one of the few international fisheries policy organizations in the region, the IOTC is also responsible for management of billfish and sharks. Several new shark conservation policies were proposed this year. These included species-specific protections for hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks, closing loopholes in existing policies that ban finning sharks and discarding the bodies at sea, and requiring fishermen to collect and report more types of data on their shark bycatch. All of these proposals were rejected.


Shark Advocates International President Sonja Fordham, who attended the IOTC meeting, said

“The complete failure of Indian Ocean fishing nations to agree on even the most basic measures for the region’s most endangered sharks is deeply distressing and does not bode well for the future of these highly vulnerable and heavily fished species.”

The new conservation policies were proposed by the European Union, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Opposition came from India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Japan, China, and South Korea.

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Tags: bycatch indian ocean tuna commision shark advocates international shark management sonja fordham

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One thought on “Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Rejects Shark Conservation Policies”

  1. Ivan van Heerden says:
    March 30, 2011 at 4:24 am

    Well maybe when the Maldives bleats for assistance due to global warming we can tell them all to sod off.!!!
    What are any of China, South Korea and Japan doing at the conference? When I last looked their borders were bounded by the Pacific.
    And when Pakistan suffers the next earthquake maybe we can tell them that the free food they recieve in aid was going to be made of Tuna for Protein but sorry there are none left so unlucky for you.
    None of those hypocrites wants to endanger their lucrative finning business……All foreign aid teams out of Japan Now!!!!!

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