Canada joins talks to save endangered Atlantic shark

Swiftly swimming through the depths of the waters off Canada’s east coast is the North Atlantic shortfin mako shark, an endangered species that reaches up to 13 feet in length.

Highly migratory, sharks can swim across entire oceans and are found everywhere from the Nova Scotia continental shelf to the Caribbean Sea. In countries like Spain, Portugal and the USA, they are fished for food, fins and sport. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, it’s unclear how many sharks are left, but one thing is for sure: the population is declining due to overfishing.

This week, Canada heads into negotiations to change international regulations on fishing for mako, citing advice from scientists They have suggested a retention ban (keeping sharks when they are caught, even accidentally) since 2017.

In 2020, Canada went ahead by its own prohibition, which caused the federal government to decide to end the retention in the Atlantic fisheries. Shannon Arnold, senior coordinator of the marine program at the Ecological Action Center in Halifax, said that move made Canada a leader in protecting the species.

Now, at the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), Arnold is hopeful that Canada will push for others to do the same. At the two-week meeting, 52 member countries sit down to discuss the conservation and management of tuna and tuna-like species (including makos) in the Atlantic and its adjacent waters.

“From a Canadian perspective, this is very important: that Canada has been one of those who has led this super tough in recent years. It has been a really difficult fight, ”he said after observing the first day of the ICCAT meeting.

“They have had a lot of internal pressure to allow fishing. And they decided, ‘No.’ Our government is committed to following scientific advice ”.

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Canada lobbied for the same in 2019 at the last ICCAT meeting, as the 2020 negotiations were postponed due to COVID-19. Along with Senegal and 14 other countries, Canada’s stance was not enough to pass a retention ban due to the consensus blocking of the United States and the European Union.

“Now that the 2021 negotiations begin, there is a ray of hope that countries will finally unite in the need to stop landing this shark as a first step towards recovery while working on a comprehensive reconstruction plan for the population,” he said. Arnold.

Arnold says the EU is the main threat in moving forward a new porbeagle deal, with 74 percent of reported shortfin catches coming from there.

It is difficult for the EU to agree on a total retention ban, which is what conservationists like Arnold want. A total ban would mean that even if a boat accidentally caught a porbeagle while fishing for something else, they would not be allowed to keep it, even if it was already dead.

According to a 2017 report, the ban should be in effect for several years while the population recovers. If a retention ban were put in place, over the next 10 years, the population is expected to continue to decline and not fully recover for half a century.

“This meeting is truly a watershed moment for the Makos,” said Sonja Fordham, President of Shark Advocates International.

“The depletion of the North Atlantic population is one of the most urgent, but solvable, shark conservation crises in the world. The proposed ban is science-based, simple, and urgently needed to prevent further harm to the population and associated ecosystem. The US and the EU have strong records of leadership in shark conservation initiatives. We are eager for these influential parts of ICCAT to end their opposition to a long-term total ban on porbeagle and help ensure adoption without further delay. ”