Conservation of the mako shark

Subject: Conservation of the mako shark

The European Union has long been a global advocate of sustainable fisheries. Targeted for their meat and fins, stocks of the mako shark have plummeted over time: by 96 % in the Mediterranean, 60 % in the Atlantic Ocean and 69 % in the Pacific Ocean. As we risk fishing these creatures to extinction, it is incumbent on the EU and the Member States, as the shark’s biggest catchers in the Atlantic, to ensure the species is protected.

Given that sustainable shark fisheries and the reduction of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) are at the core of the EU’s policy to protect the oceans, what steps does the Commission envisage to prevent a total population collapse of shark species and facilitate the sustainable catching and trade of sharks?

Answer given by Mr Vella on behalf of the European Commission

(5 March 2019)

The Commission consistently promotes the adoption of conservation and management measures for shark species domestically and in all relevant international bodies, in particular in Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs).

In 2009, the Commission adopted an EU Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (1), and EC law (2) now includes a large number of regulated sharks and provides for a finning ban and a shark fins naturally attached policy (3) (FNAP).

The Commission works actively at all levels to promote this policy and its efforts have resulted in concrete successes such as the adoption of the FNAP by the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission in 2015 and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation in 2016.

On the specific case of the shortfin mako shark, in 2018 the Commission tabled a proposal in the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to end overfishing and to start rebuilding the stock in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Unfortunately, the proposal faced opposition from various ICCAT members, which resulted in significant derogations to the ban on retention of live shortfin mako advocated by the EU. The Commission is awaiting the results of the new ICCAT stock assessment and the advice from ICCAT’s Standing Committee on Research and Statistics, on the best ways to bring this stock back to sustainable levels and will propose the adoption of effective management measures for shortfin mako accordingly.

The EU and its Member States have also recently decided to co-sponsor a proposal to include shortfin mako shark in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to regulate the international trade of this species.

⋅1∙ COM(2009) 40 final

⋅2∙ Council Regulation (EU) 2018/120 of 23 January 2018 fixing for 2018 the fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Union

waters and, for Union fishing vessels, in certain non-Union waters.

⋅3∙ Council Regulation (EC) No 1185/2003 of 26 June 2003 on the removal of fins of sharks on board vessels (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?

qid=1548855066951&uri=CELEX:32003R1185) and Regulation (EU) No 605/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1185/2003 on the removal of fins of sharks on board vessels.