15 Aug 2007 - Cape Town,
South Africa – A new study shows that inadequate
regulatory controls and increased targeting
of sharks in South African waters could
make certain species vulnerable to over-harvesting.
The report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade
monitoring network — a joint programme of
WWF and IUCN-The World Conservation Union
— found that South African exports of shark
products to Australia totalled 37 tonnes;
the combined Australian import figure was
almost 148 tonnes, a discrepancy of more
than 100 tonnes.
“Too little is recorded about the level
of trade in sharks between the two countries,”
said Markus Bürgener, a Senior Programme
Officer with TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa
and a co-author of the report.
“We found wide discrepancies in the import
and export data. We simply don’t know if
the current fishing levels are sustainable.”
Demersal, or bottom-dwelling, sharks are
mainly caught as by-catch in South Africa.
Processed fillets are exported to Australia
to meet the high consumer demand in the
fish-and-chip trade. The trade is concentrated
on five shark species — smooth-hound, tope,
copper, dusky and white-spotted smooth-hound.
Currently there are no catch limits on
any of these species in South African waters.
“Another problem is that customs officers
aren’t experts in identifying the species
being traded, so this information simply
isn’t recorded,” added Charlene Da Silva
of South Africa’s Rhodes University, the
other co-author of the report
“This is compounded because a lot of the
processing takes place at sea, and it’s
even harder to identify processed shark
fillets. It’s vital to know this for monitoring
the trade in individual species.”
Da Silva has developed a shark identification
toolkit which the report recommends is distributed
to all relevant compliance officials where
demersal sharks are exploited.
Other report recommendations include a
call for research into demersal shark stocks
in South African waters, closer monitoring
of the processing and export of demersal
sharks, and an investigation into the wide
discrepancies between import and export
data on sharks between the two countries.
In Australia, TRAFFIC has written to the
government, calling on it to improve its
recording of imported seafoods and apply
a sustainability test on imports.
“Australia prides itself on management
of the sustainability of shark catches within
Australian waters, but limited consideration
is given to recording the volume and sustainability
of imported seafood products,” said Glenn
Sant, Global Marine Programme Leader from
TRAFFIC, based in Australia.
“We want countries worldwide to record
the trade in shark products properly and
apply the equivalent tests of sustainability
on imported products that apply to fishers
within their own waters.”
Richard Thomas, Communications Coordinator
TRAFFIC International
END NOTES:
• In 2007, a meeting of Parties to the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
urged countries to improve their monitoring
and reporting of catch, bycatch, discards,
market and international trade in sharks,
to species level wherever possible, and
to report on their progress at the Animals
Committee meeting in April 2008.
• The Australian Department of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry has developed a National
Plan of Action for the Conservation and
Management of Sharks (NPOA-shark) in line
with the recommendations of the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO)
International Plan of Action for the Conservation
and Management of Sharks. The NPOA-sharks
highlights the need to “assess availability
of Australian export and import data for
shark products against the recommendations
of the FAO and CITES decisions on trade
codes, identify deficiencies and address
these”.
• South Africa’s demersal shark meat harvest
was funded by the South African Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism: Branch
Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) and
the British High Commission in Pretoria.
